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Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that causes sufferers to experience tremors and erratic movements. Experiments with cloned cells in animals may lead to a breakthrough in treatment of the disease.
Researchers at the University of Colorado successfully transplanted cells |cloned| from bovine brain cells into the brains of rats that suffered from Parkinson's-like symptoms. The cloned bovine cells were effective in treating the rats' symptoms.
"What we found was that the bovine fetal dopamine cells were just as good as bovine embryo cells from an animal that was not cloned, " said Dr. Curt Freed of the University of Colorado.
Freed is not the only researcher exploring the use of cloned animal cells for such treatments. Researchers at Emory University will transplant pig cells into human beings later this year.
Source:
Rhonda Rowland "Cloned animal cells may help treat Parkinson's disease" Cable News Network April 27, 1998.