April 21, 2025

Human stem cells used to treat rats with Parkinson’s

Israeli scientists have found that human embryonic stem cells have helped rats with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease to recover. Dr Benjamin Reubinoff told the ESHRE conference that his team had directed the stem cells to grow into specialist neuron cells and had then injected them into the rats’ brains. The results were encouraging and “set the stage for future development”. Animal embryonic stem cells have been used before to treat animal models of Parkinson’s disease, but this marked the first time that human cells have been used.