[Development of mammalian nervous tissue transplanted into the brain and anterior chamber of the eye: problems and prospects].

  • 1 May 1984
    • journal article
    • abstracts
    • Vol. 15  (3) , 229-51
Abstract
Some theoretical problems arising in connection with nervous tissue grafting in mammals are discussed. The survival of grafts in the brain and anterior eye chamber is provided by a complex of factors, including peculiarities of immunological reaction, blood-brain barrier and certain characteristics of embryonic nervous tissue. Organotypic development of ectopic grafts suggests a significant autonomy of inner genetic programmes in self-organization of brain structures. Development of the graft-host brain nervous connections is, to a great extent, determined by the factors of topographic closeness and the presence of free postsynaptic structures, without prominent specificity of the graft-brain relationships. Complex neurotrophic interactions, mainly provided by the glial cells, are also found between the graft and damaged host brain. A study of electric activity of the grafted neurons has shown a varying degree of dependence of the functional organization of the brain structures on the environmental afferent influences. The grafts can serve as a chronic endogenous source of neurotransmitters and neurohormones, and, possibly, restore interrupted structural connections, thus providing the compensation of some complex brain functions.

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