Sudden Death Brain and Tissue Bank

Brain banking has a long tradition of supporting research by providing human tissue samples for investigation of human brain disorders. Recent organ retention crises and the resulting public disquiet have accelerated the generally declining autopsy rate of consented post mortem examinations. This poses a threat to post mortem tissue collections and consequently for future research. Acquisition of control cases in different age groups and with no significant CNS pathology has been particularly difficult. This application proposes to respond to the present situation by seeking families’ authorisation for research use of brains examined in the setting of the forensic post mortem service. The purpose of this proposal is to collect not only control cases but also CNS disorders mainly encountered in the forensic setting by virtue of sudden death, eg head injury, drug overdose, suicide. This will fulfill a need for the general research community by providing control cases for whom review of the clinical history and examination of the brain exclude the presence of any CNS disorder. This application sets out a two year feasibility project to study the logistics and acceptability of establishing this service in Edinburgh. The applicants trust that this proposal would help to redress the difficulties encountered in recent years by many brain banks.

This application relates to the development of a tissue bank derived from sudden death post mortem cases and builds on a pilot study which is currently funded by MRC. We have put in place a mechanism which allows the collection of central nervous system (CNS) and other tissue samples from medico-legal post mortems with the knowledge and full support of the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Crown Office and the Procurators Fiscal in Edinburgh. This will provide an ethically approved resource of human post mortem CNS tissue samples for use by the wider scientific community. The bank will concentrate on control tissues, covering all ages, to provide age-matched controls for other researchers. In addition the bank will store tissues from hard to get disorders, and from disorders which reflect the applicants particular research interests. Where required non-CNS tissues can be banked in response to specific requests from researchers.
This bank will provide a unique resource and will address a recognised worldwide shortage of control tissues within the research community.