Parthenogenic activation of human oocytes for the production of neuronal cells

A method of preparing neuronal cells for administering to a human subject with Parkinson's disease, comprising:

• a) parthenogenetically activating a human oocyte, wherein activating comprises:
• i) contacting the oocyte with an ionophore at high oxygen (O2) tension;
• and ii) contacting the oocyte with a serine-threonine kinase inhibitor under low O2 tension;
• b) cultivating the activated oocyte at low O2 tension until blastocyst formation;
• c) transferring the blastocyst to a layer of human feeder cells and culturing the transferred blastocyst under high O2 tension;
• d) mechanically isolating an inner cell mass (ICM) from trophectoderm of the blastocyst;
• e) culturing the cells of the ICM on a layer of human feeder cells under high O2 tension to produce human stem cells;
• and
• f) differentiating the human stem cells from (e) into neuronal cells, thereby preparing neuronal cells for administrating to the human subject.