Is it possible to repair the damaged prefrontal cortex by neural tissue transplantation?

The techniques are now well established for the viable transplantation of cortical and other neural tissues into the neonatal and adult cortex, at least in the laboratory rat. Under appropriate conditions such grafts survive well and can establish reciprocal connections with the host brain. On this basis, neural transplantation has become a powerful technique for the study of mechanisms involved in the development of the central nervous system and its capacity for regeneration after injury. Moreover, a variety of anatomical, electrophysiological and behavioural techniques suggest that grafted neural tissue may sustain functional interactions with the host brain. However, the extent and duration of recovery using present techniques is extremely limited. It remains undetermined whether such experimental observations may ever acquire therapeutic application.