Deep brain stimulation may help advanced Parkinson’s patients by producing new stem cells

The fact that the symptoms of advanced Parkinson’s disease patients improve after implantation of electrodes has always felt a bit like voodoo to me. But this “deep brain stimulation” works. The dyskinesias, the involuntary muscle tics, that plague these patients improve after the implants.

Now, a team of scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Auckland in New Zealand has published research that offers part of the explanation for why it works. These patients produce more nerve stem cells.

The researchers published their work in PLOSone March 3 and The New Zealand Herald ran an interview with lead New Zealand researcher yesterday. It quoted Maurice Curtis on the gap in understanding about the effect of deep brain stimulation:

We always knew that when people had these electrodes implanted in their brains that their symptoms would improve, but we've never really known why that should make a difference. What these electrodes seem to be doing is to actually increase the amount of stem cells that are present in the key areas of the brain that normally just have a small number of stem cells. So the hope is that those stem cells are actually doing something beneficial.

However, Curtis admits that the study leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

We know that stem cells mount a major regenerative response, but is that what really brings about changes in the brain that improves the symptoms? Even though this paper is definitely a step in the right direction it leaves lots of unanswered questions about why deep brain stimulation works the way it does.

CIRM funds several projects, both fundamental research and projects moving toward the clinic, to help unravel part of those mysteries. You can read about those projects on the CIRM Parkinson’s Disease Fact Sheet.

One of those projects is using electrical currents to guide stem cells to the site of brain injury. That work is described by Min Zhao of the University of California at Davis in this video.

Don Gibbons