Fetal Transplantation for Huntington’s Disease: Clinical Studies

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a particularly insidious autosomal-dominant genetic neurodegenerative disease in which patients suffer persistent involuntary writhing movements (chorea) and dementia. Patients are usually asymptomatic until their third or fourth decade of life, and then deteriorate during the course of 10–15 yr. Thus, by the time a person at risk for HD begins to manifest symptoms, he or she is likely to have begun a productive life and have had children who are themselves at risk for HD. Various pharmacological treatments for the movement and mood disorders attendant on HD have had little or no effect (1–5), and currently the HD patient has little recourse even to palliative treatment.