Co-transplantation of autologous Treg cells in a cell therapy for Parkinson's disease
The specific loss of midbrain dopamine neurons (mDANs) causes major motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, which makes cell replacement a promising therapeutic approach1–4. However, poor survival of grafted mDANs remains an obstacle to successful clinical outcomes5–8. Here we show that the surgical procedure itself (referred to here as ‘needle trauma’) triggers a profound host response that is characterized by acute neuroinflammation, robust infiltration of peripheral immune cells and brain cell death. When midbrain dopamine (mDA) cells derived from human induc...