Brain banks
Brain banks are specialized repositories that collect, preserve, and distribute human brain tissue for scientific research. Essential for studying neurological diseases, these banks allow researchers to access human tissue, which is often more relevant than animal models for understanding brain pathology. They employ a diverse team, including administrative staff, technicians, neuroanatomists, and research scientists, many of whom hold advanced degrees in medicine or neuroscience.
Since their inception in the late 19th century and formalization in the 1960s, brain banks have proliferated, with many focusing on specific conditions like Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. The NIH NeuroBioBank, established in 2013, exemplifies efforts to centralize and streamline brain tissue research.
Brain banks also face ethical challenges, requiring informed consent from donors or their families and adherence to strict regulations regarding tissue dissemination and handling. Through these protocols, brain banks play a crucial role in advancing our understanding of brain function and the treatment of neurological illnesses, which contribute significantly to human health challenges.
Brain banks
Organizations
Definition: An institution that acquires, preserves, stores, and distributes normal and diseased brain tissue for medical research.
Key terms:
formalin: an aqueous solution that contains formaldehyde and is used for the preservation of tissue
histology: a branch of biology that studies the microscopic structure of tissue
morphology: a branch of biology that studies form and structure, independent of function
neuropathology: the study of diseases associated with the nervous system
postmortem: after the death of an individual
Science and Profession
Brain banks employ a variety of people. There are nontechnical staff who handle the database and donation paperwork, as well as administrative personnel who handle things like public relations. Once a human brain has been acquired, technicians dissect and preserve the tissue, and then neuroanatomists and neuropathologists study the brain morphology and histological characteristics to diagnose it. Research scientists help sort through the requests to use the tissue for research. Usually, the director of the brain bank, along with collaborating scientists, will have earned a doctorate in medicine (MD) or a specialist’s doctoral degree (PhD) in neuroscience or a related field.
Perspective and Prospects
Although brain banks got their initial start at the end of the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1960s that formalized practices were instituted and eventually widely adopted. There were just three brain banks in the early-to-mid-1970s, but now, they number in the several hundreds. Most collections are small, with fewer than twenty brains. Smaller banks most often result from a focus on only one type of pathology (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, etc.). It has been suggested that these smaller banks seek out relationships with each other for the purpose of forming tissue-sharing networks. In 2013 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the NIH NeuroBioBank, a federated network of brain and nervous tissue repositories, to coordinate and centralize the collection, evaluation, processing, storage, and distribution of tissue and clinical data.
One of the NIH NeuroBioBank repositories, the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, is one of the world’s oldest brain banks and, as of 2012, the repository of more than 3,000 brains from individuals diagnosed with several different pathological disorders. It is important to note that brain banks also collect nondiseased brains for use as normal controls in studies. Nondiseased brains are more difficult to acquire since donors are less motivated to turn the organ over for scientific study.
Brain banks are able to fill several niches in the world of clinical research. Their development grew out of the need for investigators to study human tissue as opposed to tissue from nonhuman species (e.g., mice, rats, monkeys) because in many instances, animal models of specific kinds of pathology are not available. Brain imaging technologies (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] and positron emission tomography [PET]) and genetics methods are often unsuitable for the research of brain pathology. Therefore, as a means of acquiring the human tissue necessary to study the cellular lesions of brain diseases, brain banks are vital. Even though brain tissue is vital to certain kinds of research, it is not easy to procure. So, brain banks provide the legal, ethical, and scientific expertise to manage the acquisition, storage, and distribution of human brains to responsible investigators for study. The alternative would be for individual laboratories to bear the considerable burden of acquiring and managing their own tissue. Even in instances where this would be possible, it would be prohibitively expensive and inefficient.
In conjunction with the fact that autopsy rates are declining worldwide, meaning there is less clinically relevant tissue to observe, brain banks are key to gaining access to brain tissue. A third, bigger-picture role involves the urgency to understand how the brain functions. It has been estimated that one-third of all human disease is attributed to neurological illness. Acquiring a more comprehensive understanding of the inner workings of the brain could help neuroscientists develop treatments that would alleviate horrific symptoms associated with brain pathology and even open up the door to possible cures. Brain banks are central to facilitating these kinds of investigations conducted in labs around the world.
Procedures and Ethics
Once a brain bank acquires a brain, it must quickly process and preserve the tissue. A typical protocol begins with removal of some key structures, like the cerebellum. One hemisphere is then immersed in a 10 percent formalin solution, which preserves the tissue. It is then stored at room temperature. The other is sliced up into segments. The sections are photographed and stored in a database along with any information known about the donor. The slices are vacuum-packed and frozen to approximately –80° Celsius. These cold storage techniques preserve the properties of the tissue-including enough detail for genetic analyses for years.
Brain banks, similar to other organ procurement organizations (e.g., heart, lung, etc.), need consistent procedures to address the inevitable ethical challenges. Foremost is the need to obtain premortem informed consent from the donor or postmortem consent from next of kin. This procedure was mandated by the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2001. Other regulation forbids selling human brains in general, while still allowing brain banks the ability to recover some of the costs associated with diagnostics, storage, and transportation.
Brain banks also need strict guidelines regarding tissue dissemination. It is imperative that agencies who request brain tissue be vetted to ensure they have appropriate training and scientific credentials as well as suitable facilities for safe handling of the tissue. As it is the defining human organ, dealing with the brain carries a heightened ethical sensitivity, so banks must conduct their collection practices responsibly.
Bibliography
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Benes, Francine M. “Deserving the Last Great Gift.” Cerebrum (July 2003): 61–73.
Conley, Mikaela. “Harvard Brain Bank Freezer Damages Donated Brains.” ABC News: Medical Unit. ABC News Internet Ventures, 11 June 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
Kretzschmar, Hans. “Brain Banking: Opportunities, Challenges and Meaning for the Future.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10 (2009): 70–77.
NIH Natl. Inst. of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). “Brain and Biospecimen Repositories.” NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Natl. Inst. of Health, 11 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
NIH NeuroBioBank. NIH NeuroBioBank. Natl. Inst. of Mental Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Natl. Inst. of Child Health and Human Development, Natl. Inst. of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
Ravid, Rivka, and Isidro Ferrer. “Brain Banks as Key Part of Biochemical and Molecular Studies on Cerebral Cortex Involvement in Parkinson's Disease.” The FEBS Journal 279 (2012): 1167–1176.