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Editorial commentary
Fetal grafting for Huntington's disease. Is there a hope?
  1. José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo
  1. Correspondence to Dr José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo, Department of Neurology, Parkinson's Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, The Smith Tower, Suite 1801, 6550 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, USA; and University of Guanajuato, Mexico; baizabaljf{at}hotmail.com

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2013-307252

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    The recently published article by Paganini et al1 report the clinical outcomes of 10 patients with Huntington's disease (HD) receiving fetal grafting in the striatum, and compared with 16 non-grafted HD controls. The authors assessed the transplantation effect through a model of change in slope (disease progression over time) following grafting, a reduced deterioration in motor scores of −2.0 units/year was observed compared with the pretransplantation period and non-transplanted patients, with chorea and ocular movements achieving the highest benefit.1 Importantly, the slope of cognitive deterioration was also reduced. The present study adds important evidence to support transplantation of fetal tissue in patients with HD, although the observed benefit seems to be modest. The authors calculated that to worse 30 …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests None.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles

    • Movement disorders
      Fetal striatal grafting slows motor and cognitive decline of Huntington's disease
      Marco Paganini Annibale Biggeri Anna Maria Romoli Claudia Mechi Elena Ghelli Valentina Berti Silvia Pradella Sandra Bucciantini Dolores Catelan Riccardo Saccardi Letizia Lombardini Mario Mascalchi Luca Massacesi Berardino Porfirio Nicola Di Lorenzo Gabriella Barbara Vannelli Pasquale Gallina
      Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 2013; 85 974-981 Published Online First: 17 Dec 2013. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2013-306533