Wolff JA, Fisher LJ, Xu L, Jinnah HA, Langlais PJ, Iuvone PM, O'Malley KL, Rosenberg MB, Shimohama S, Friedmann T. Grafting fibroblasts genetically modified to produce L-dopa in a rat model of Parkinson disease.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1989;
86:9011-4. [PMID:
2573072 PMCID:
PMC298422 DOI:
10.1073/pnas.86.22.9011]
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Abstract
Rat fibroblasts were infected with a retroviral vector containing the cDNA for rat tyrosine hydroxylase [TH; tyrosine 3-monooxygenase; L-tyrosine, tetrahydropteridine:oxygen oxidoreductase (3-hydroxylating), EC 1.14.16.2]. A TH-positive clone was identified by biochemical assay and immunohistochemical staining. When supplemented in vitro with pterin cofactors required for TH activity, these cells produced L-dopa and released it into the cell culture medium. Uninfected control cells and fibroblasts infected with the TH vector were grafted separately to the caudate of rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the nigrostriatal pathway. Only grafts containing TH-expressing fibroblasts were found to reduce rotational asymmetry. These results have general implications for the application of gene therapy to human neurological disease and specific implications for Parkinson disease.
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