Scientists at NUI Galway have taken a step forward in understanding how to make healthy brain cells survive after they are implanted into people suffering from Parkinson's disease.
The discovery could in time help with the development of new treatments for the neurodegenerative illness, which chiefly affects a person's ability to control movement leading to a progressive deterioration in ability.
One potential treatment being explored by scientists is the possibility of transplanting healthy brain cells into patients to kickstart regrowth in regions of the brain where cells have died.
But so far such a therapy has not been found because implanted cells do not tend to survive.
However, researchers at Galway Neuroscience Centre and CÚRAM centre based at NUI Galway, have demonstrated that survival of the transplanted cells is dramatically improved if they are implanted within a supportive matrix made from the natural material collagen.
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