Distinguished medical researchers from around the world review novel neural reconstructive techniques that appear to be beneficial for Parkinson's disease and hold promise for treating Huntington's disease, pain, demyelinating diseases, and stroke. The contributors focus on those diseases for which clinical trials are either ongoing or likely to occur in the near future. Among the topics reviewed are results and rationale for some of the leading transplant programs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, the use of PET scanning for patient evaluation, autopsy studies of transplant recipients, transplant immunology, fetal tissue transplantation for Huntington's disease, cellular transplantation for the treatment of pain and stroke, and transplantation of myelinating cells. A full discussion of the important ethical issues surrounding the use of fetal tissue for transplantation purposes is also included.

Zusammenfassung
This text covers such topics as: somatotopic organization of the striatum and its relevance to neural transplantation; evaluation of patients with Parkinson's disease; the Lund Transplant Program (Parkinson's disease and MPTP patients); and the Paris Program.

Inhalt
1 The Lund Transplant Program for Parkinson's Disease and Patients with MPTP-Induced Parkinsonism.- 2 Fetal Nigral Transplantation in Parkinson's Disease: The USF Pilot Program (12- to 24-Month Evaluation).- 3 Toward a Phase III Multicenter Study of Fetal Ventral Mesencephalic Transplants in Patients with Late-Stage Parkinson's Disease.- 4 PET Studies of Transplantation Therapy.- 5 Neuropathology of Dopaminergic Transplants in Patients with Parkinson's Disease.- 6 Fetal-Tissue Transplantation for Huntington's Disease: Preclinical Studies.- 7 Fetal Transplantation for Huntington's Disease: Clinical Studies.- 8 Topographic Factors Affecting the Functional Viability of Dopamine-Rich Grafts in the Neostriatum.- 9 Immunological Issues in Rodent and Primate Transplants (Allografts).- 10 Transplanting Fetal Neural Xenogeneic Cells in Parkinson's and Huntington's Disease Models.- 11 Animal Models of Cerebral Ischemia: Neurodegeneration and Cell Transplantation.- 12 Transplantation Strategies for the Treatment of Pain.- 13 Treatment of Central Nervous System Diseases with Polymer-Encapsulated Xenogeneic Cells.- 14 Transplant Strategies in Myelin Disorders.- 15 Somatic Gene Transfer and Cell Transplantation Strategies for Neurodegenerative Diseases.- 16 Adequately Respecting and Protecting Fetal Tissue Donors and Their Next-of-Kin.