Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplant. Jun 24, 2017; 7(3): 179-192
Published online Jun 24, 2017. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v7.i3.179
Historical perspective of cell transplantation in Parkinson’s disease
Alejandra Boronat-García, Magdalena Guerra-Crespo, René Drucker-Colín
Alejandra Boronat-García, Magdalena Guerra-Crespo, René Drucker-Colín, Departamento de Neuropatología Molecular, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México 04510, México
Author contributions: Boronat-García A and Guerra-Crespo M contributed equally to this work; Boronat-García A, Guerra-Crespo M and Drucker-Colín R wrote the paper.
Supported by DGAPA-PAPIIT, No. IN207116; and CONACyT, No. 179927.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: René Drucker-Colín, PhD, Departamento de Neuropatología Molecular, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad de México 04510, México. drucker@unam.mx
Telephone: +52-5-6225732
Received: January 20, 2017
Peer-review started: January 20, 2017
First decision: April 14, 2017
Revised: May 8, 2017
Accepted: May 12, 2017
Article in press: May 15, 2017
Published online: June 24, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: The first studies on cell transplantation for Parkinson’s disease were published during the early 80s. Since then, it has been shown that different cell types induce functional benefits but with high variability among subjects. Here, we first provide a general overview of the field during its early years. Then, we discuss some factors associated with the functionality of the graft based on the latest findings, and highlight the importance of understanding basic aspects (e.g., factors influencing graft integration) which ultimately could contribute to reducing the variability of the functional outcome-an important requirement for its application in the clinic.