Journal of Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism
Open Access

Mini Review

Stem Cell Applications in Parkinson’s Disease

¹Biomedical Research Institute, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

²RYU Rehabilitation Clinic, Kyungju, Korea

³School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, BK21 Plus KNU Creative BioResearch Group, College of Natural Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Taegu , Korea

⁴Animal Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Animal Science, RDA, Wanju-gun, Korea

⁵Department of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Chungbuk

⁶Animal Protection and Welfare Division, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, Gimcheon, Korea

⁷Department of Bioinformatics, Korea Bio-Polytechnics University, Korea

⁸Department of Urology, Soonchunhyang University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

^#Authors contributed equally

Corresponding Authors:

Yun Seob Song
Department of Urology
Soonchunhyang University School of Medicine
Seoul 140-743, Korea
Tel: +82-2-709-9114
E-mail: yssong@schmc.ac.kr

Hong J Lee
Biomedical Research Institute
Chung-Ang University, College of Medicine
Seoul 156-756, Republic of Korea
Tel: +82-70-7555-2174
E-mail: leehj71@gmail.com

Received date: January 05, 2017; Accepted date: January 13, 2017; Published date: 20, 2017

Citation: Choi SS, Ryu GH, Kim DH, Lee DS, Lee S, et al. (2017) Stem Cell Applications in Parkinson’s Disease. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 7:300. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000300

Copyright: © 2017 Choi SS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Parkinson’s disease (PD), characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders in elderly people. However, few effective therapies are available for neurodegenerative diseases, including PD. Stem cell therapies have been studied as potentially effective treatment options for neurodegenerative diseases through mechanisms of neuronal regeneration and substitution. Stem cells can migrate into injured regions and produce new neurons and glia, as well as neuroprotective molecules to improve neuron survival in the region. The survival and integration of these transplanted stem cells is an important issue for the success of stem cell therapy in neurodegenerative disease. Recent research in animals shows the promise of stem cell transplantation as a powerful treatment for Parkinson’s disease, among other neurodegenerative diseases, in the near future.

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