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To: Trader J who wrote (8563)	11/5/1998 3:48:00 PM
From: Yoav Chudnoff	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 119973

Here's the story to be done on the news whenever they air it tonight in your area Human nerve cells grown in a biotechnology company's lab will be transplanted into Fitch's brain, replacing the neurons destroyed by the stroke he suffered. DON FITCH, 67 years old, sits in a pre-operative room waiting to become part of an ambitious experiment that could repair the damage done by a stroke he suffered more than three years ago. His doctor, Douglas Kondziolka, a neurosurgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, examines Fitch one last time before surgery, asking him to hold up his good arm and to open and close his hand. During the surgery human nerve cells grown in a biotechnology company's lab will be transplanted into Fitch's brain, replacing the neurons destroyed by the stroke he suffered. Minutes before the operation begins, Kondziolka shoots videotape of the exam. The procedure is so new the doctor wants to use the tape to compare the patient's condition before and after the surgery. The stroke paralyzed Fitch's left arm, made walking difficult and smiling impossible. “If I get my arm back, even if I don't have much strength, I can surely be able to fix breakfast again. And boy, I just enjoy doing that,” says Fitch. MAPPING OUT THE PROCEDURE In the operating room, doctors prep Fitch for the procedure, placing a special guide known as a stereotactic frame on his head. This frame will help surgeons pinpoint the precise area of the brain damaged by the stroke and guide the injection of the neurons to that area. The aim is to restore the messaging and signaling ability formerly there. Don Fitch suffered a stroke in 1995 which paralyzed parts of the left side of his body. “Around the stroke area there is regional brain that is still viable. It's just perhaps not working very well. It's not helping the arm or leg move. And so by putting these cells in we're trying to create a better environment for recovery,” says Kondziolka. Kondziolka says there is a possibility that these new cells might build a bridge across the damaged area, linking healthy parts of the brain. The bridging process, he explains, could improve the passage of neurotransmitters through the damaged area. “The brain has its own ability to recover — a kind of plasticity that allows it to forge new connections,” he says. Patients like Fitch, who suffered damage long ago, no longer have that capability and have come about as far as they can on their own. That is where the new brain cells come in. Where do these cells come from and how are they grown? You might be surprised to learn that they come originally from tumor cells. Indeed they start off as a very rare and primitive type of cancer. But over the course of time, these cells can transform via natural processes into nerve cells. Neuroscientists have refined this process over the years, cleaning out impurities and byproducts, and insuring the reproducibility of the end result. Another refinement has made the cells relatively easy to generate, making them widely available to surgical teams that might need them in the future. READY TO GO Fitch is moved under a CT scanner and a snapshot of his brain is taken. Reviewing the scan, surgeons note a blackish gray region that happens to be the very bottom of the area damaged by the stroke. They will use this kind of information to map out their operation, relating the areas on the scan to precise physical locations on the stereotactic apparatus and inside Fitch's brain. With the doctors gathered around their patient, Kondziolka points out three sites where new neurons will be injected into Fitch's brain. The transplant takes just a few minutes and Fitch is awake the whole time. Two hours later he is in the recovery room, the stereotactic apparatus is gone and he says he feels fine. This is a phase one clinical trial aimed at studying whether the procedure is safe and feasible. Fitch is only the fourth person to receive the brain cell transplant and while the procedure works in animals with strokes surgeons say it could be many months before they know if it works for Fitch and the others. If it does, it could lead to the first treatment for some of the million Americans disabled by strokes, helping them live longer and better.