Neural Adult Stem Cells Alleviate Symptoms in Parkinson's Disease 
Tremors and other Parkinson's disease symptoms have largely disappeared from a California man since he underwent a procedure wherein doctors obtained stem cells from his brain, grew them in the laboratory, and injected them back into his brain in an attempt to treat his Parkinson's disease. Michael Levesque and his team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles performed the work. They removed 50 to 100 cells from the brain of Dennis Turner, a San Clemente, CA man with Parkinson's, grew them in the laboratory for several months, and then in March 1999 injected about six million of the cells into the patient's brain. Dopamine, a chemical neurotransmitter, is lacking in Parkinson's disease patients. With this treatment, there was an initial increase in the man's brain of dopamine, which leveled off again a year later, to pre-surgery levels. Still, an 83 percent reduction in symptoms has persisted. "It's not just psychological. His motor improvement is real. And the improvement is beyond the level for placebo effects," Levesque said. Mr. Turner, the patient, has great praises for the procedure: "Two years ago I couldn't put my contact lenses in without a big problem. Now it's no problem. And I don't have to take any anti-rejection medication because the cells are myself." Because the cells are derived from the patient himself, such a procedure precludes any need for anti-immune-rejection medication, with its strong side effects. With such a treatment, patients could "essentially grow their own cures from a few starter cells taken from their own brains." This research shows that human embryos need not be killed in order to treat the diseases of others.
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Sources: Weiss, Rick, "Stem Cell Transplant Works in Calif. Case; Parkinson's Traits Largely Disappear," Washington Post, April 9, 2002, Page A8; | 
