Recent clinical work indicates that dopaminergic progenitor cells derived from iPSCs or hESCs achieve graft survival and favorable safety with apparent absence of graft‑induced dyskinesia, though definitive clinical efficacy remains to be established in well‑designed trials.

This represents a highly translational cell‑replacement strategy that addresses key limitations of fetal grafts (ethical concerns and GID) and, if efficacy is confirmed, could provide durable restoration of nigrostriatal dopamine in Parkinson’s disease.

Human fetal ventral mesencephalic tissue transplantation provided early evidence supporting the efficacy of cell replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease; however, major challenges, including ethical concerns and graft-induced dyskinesia (GID), were raised. Recently, clinical trials using dopaminergic progenitor cells derived from induced pluripotent or human embryonic stem cells have demonstrated favorable safety profiles, graft survival, and the apparent absence of GID. Well-designed clinical trials are required to confirm the safety and establish its definitive clinical efficacy.