Chinese scientists have successfully transplanted healthy nerve stem cells into a patient's brain to replace the deteriorated ones.

Doctors at Zhengzhou University in this capital of central China's Henan Province conducted a nerve stem cell transplant operation on a 43-year-old female patient suffering from muscular atrophy.

Since the operation, the patient's dyskinesia has been greatly relieved, and the patient has started to walk.

The operation, along with the related research, was conducted by Yang Bo, Du Ying and Zhang Qingyong, professors at Zhengzhou University.

Experts said that nerve stem cell transplant is regarded as a new solution for Parkinson's syndrome and other high-incidence diseases affecting elderly people.

In the past, patients of those diseases were given chemical treatment or received intravenous injections, but these proved either to be not very effective or to have undesirable side- effects.

Chinese scientists succeeded in cultivating human embryonic nerve stem cells last year, and obtained promising results in transplant operations on animals early this year.

(People's Daily 08/31/2001)