Figure 2

Score card for cell preparations for clinical transplantation in Parkinson’s disease. Parameters listed here may serve to illustrate criteria that would need to be met by a cell source before application as a therapeutic agent to treat neurological disease. (A) General features refer to properties to be ensured in a range of pre-clinical, biotechnical studies regarding the cell source in question. This includes safety-related (e.g., absence of tumor formation) and also efficacy-related issues such as phenotypic functionality (e.g., histological integration into the host tissue and functional restoration of the neural circuitry). (B) Specific features refer to properties that would be considered as a means of quality control of each batch or cell preparation in clinical-biotechnological routines as part of the actual clinical trial. Examples of intracellular or surface markers that may be used to characterize (dopaminergic) neuronal cell preparations are given.