A tissue bank contains the brains of 200 donors for research into Parkinson's disease and other disorders, writes Kirstin Goldring.
Something extraordinary is taking place 14 floors up in an otherwise ordinary looking London office block. The building serves as a repository for more than 200 human brains.
These tissue samples serve an essential purpose, to support worldwide medical research into Parkinson's and other neurological disorders. The challenge is to increase the supply of donations coming into this tissue bank.
"Although the idea of carrying a donor card for organs such as hearts or lungs is generally accepted, the idea of one for brains has not taken off," states the scientific director of the Parkinson's Disease Society (PDS) Tissue Bank, Dr David Dexter.
"While we have made big steps in new treatments for these disorders, a lack of brain samples has seriously hampered our efforts to date," he says.
The possibility of making these essential tissues available for research is the goal of the PDS Tissue Bank. Established by Imperial College London in 2002 at Charing Cross Hospital and funded by the PDS, the bank is an international resource, from which scientists working in this area can request tissues for their research.
"Brain disorders can affect just about anyone, even those under the age of 45, and your brain [ donation] could play a vital role in helping develop better drug treatments or even cures for diseases such as Parkinson's," says Dexter.
Research without the availability of tissue samples becomes very difficult because non-human models of the disease do not provide a complete match, explains Dexter. "Parkinson's only affects humans and currently no animal models exist which exhibit all the aspects of Parkinson's. Hence, being able to investigate human tissue is particularly important and without it, it would not have been possible to develop some of the treatments we use now for Parkinson's, such as Levadopa."
Direct access to tissue samples is essential if researchers are to learn more about the disease, Dexter says. "Looking at human tissue is like looking at the scene of a crime, and evidence can be gathered to ascertain how the disease has developed."
AS WELL AS brain tissue from individuals affected by neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's, researchers also need samples from healthy (control) individuals. This is so researchers can compare how a diseased brain looks when compared to a healthy brain.
"On average at the PDS Tissue Bank, only one donation is received from a healthy volunteer for every 20 from those suffering from Parkinson's or a related disorder," Dexter states. "However, researchers require equal numbers of tissue samples from diseased and control tissue."
The lack of available donor tissue, especially from healthy donors, is aided by the fact that the Tissue Bank works alongside the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Tissue Bank, which has been based at Imperial College for nearly 10 years.
Both banks also participate in BrainNet Europe, a consortium of 19 brain banks working together to harmonise protocols of tissue processing. This consortium aims to facilitate the use of tissue for research into a variety of neurological disorders, so that the researchers can gain the most value from donations, particularly control and rare cases.
The PDS and MS Tissue Bank both have a number of prospective donors located in Ireland. "We have been able to obtain samples from Ireland and logistically there is no reason that would hamper anyone in Ireland registering their intent to donate to the tissue bank, if they wish to do so," he says
Dexter highlighted the fact that the banks are international resources for researchers and that it is important that the worldwide research community is aware that this valuable resource is available. Dr Abhilash Vora, manager of the MS Tissue Bank, explained that they are currently supporting research projects in Ireland.
Dr Una Fitzgerald, of the National University of Ireland, Galway, has been using tissue from the MS Tissue Bank for more than two years. "Our work investigating a particular signalling pathway in MS is on the brink of publication," FitzGerald says.
Identifying a protein in human tissue is an essential first step in helping unravel some of the underlying mechanisms involved in MS.
Contact The PDS Tissue Bank at 0044- 08-3834917 or pdbank@imperial.ac.uk
Kirstin Goldring, of Imperial College London, is on placement at The Irish Times as a British Association for the Advancement of Science Media Fellow.