摘要：
法国医学家日前发表一份研究报告说，在医学界一直存在争议的脑细胞移植治疗可使脑病患者，特别是亨丁顿舞蹈症患者的病情得到一定程度的缓解。
A controversial operation involving the transplant of foetal brain cells into sufferers from a devastating brain disease has slowed the patients' decline.

法国医学家日前发表一份研究报告说，在医学界一直存在争议的脑细胞移植治疗可使脑病患者，特别是亨丁顿舞蹈症患者的病情得到一定程度的缓解。

据英国《独立报》2月27日报道，上世纪90年代末，法国巴黎亨利蒙度（Henri Mondor）医院的研究人员对5名亨丁顿舞蹈症患者进行了脑细胞移植手术，其中3名病人在手术后的6年中病情一直非常稳定。

巴绍莱维医生在最新一期的《柳叶刀》杂志上发表报告说，脑细胞移植手术给这3位病人带来一个"改善和稳定"的时期，但在这之后，大脑中一些与运动控制相关的功能开始出现退化，这被医生们成为"二次恶化"。巴绍莱维说，这种治疗"不是永久性的治愈"，但会为病人多争取一段时间。

亨丁顿舞蹈症是一种遗传性神经退化疾病，其致病基因会生成对部分脑细胞有毒的蛋白质，使神经损坏而导致运动能力障碍、精神错乱和认知减退。病情大约会持续发展15年到20年直到最后死亡，这种病的遗传几率为50％。

报道说，其实利用死亡胎儿的脑细胞来治疗大脑疾病（包括亨丁顿舞蹈症和帕金森综合症等）已有约20年的历史了，欧美国家的不少病人都接受过这种移植。每次手术移植的脑细胞数量，一般需要6到8个胎儿才能凑足。妇女们只有在决定堕胎后，才被征询是否愿意捐献出胎儿的组织。

（国际在线独家资讯 程瑶）

A controversial operation involving the transplant of foetal brain cells into sufferers from a devastating brain disease has slowed the patients' decline.

Three patients who had holes drilled in their skulls and millions of cells extracted from aborted foetuses inserted into their brains were still benefiting from the treatment six years later, a study has shown.

The patients have Huntington's disease, an inherited brain disorder that leads to gradual mental and functional decline ending in death in 15 to 20 years. It is caused by a single faulty gene and parents who carry it have a 50 per cent chance of passing it on to their children.

Researchers have been experimenting with foetal brain cell transplants to treat the most serious brain disorders, including Huntington's and Parkinson's disease, for two decades.

Several hundred patients have received the transplants in Europe and the US.

Six to eight foetuses are required to provide the necessary brain cells for each operation.

Women were asked to donate foetal material only after they had decided to have an abortion. Early results indicated limited success but the latest finding is the longest study of the effects of the treatment.

Experimental operations on Huntington's disease patients were carried out in France in the late 1990s led by researchers from the Henri Mondor hospital, Créteil. Five patients had the surgery of whom three benefited. In the other two the operation failed to slow the disease's progress.

Writing in The Lancet Neurology, published online today, Dr Anne-Catherine Bachoud-Levi said the procedure led to a period of "improvement and stability" for the three patients lasting several years. But then some functions associated with movement control started to deteriorate in what the researchers call "secondary decline".

They say the treatment is "not a permanent cure" for the condition, but offers a period of remission. Shortly after the start of the French study, doctors at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, carried out the same procedure on four British patients.

A BBC documentary broadcast in 2001 showed the first UK patient to undergo the operation. "Gaye", then aged 52, said: "The co-ordination is so much better. My legs used to buckle whenever I got up. That doesn't happen now."

A spokeswoman for the Huntington's Disease Association said: "We welcome any advance if people can be helped. But this is major brain surgery and there are risks."

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