Neurorestorative techniques as experimental approach to Alzheimer disease treatment

Abstract

Laboratory animals have been used to reproduce some structural changes and/or memory impairment observed in Alzheimer disease by means of specific lesions or using old animals (Kordower and Gash, 1986). Different sources and places for the neural graft have been reported showing the graft's ability to attain an adequate and specific innervation of the target as well as the behavioral recovery (Dunnett, 1991; Gage and Chen, 1992). Similar experimental procedures have been used to evaluate effects of exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF) infusion, whose influence on central cholinergic neurons is well documented (Gage et al. 1991; Pepeu et al., 1993).