Information
for Applicants For Using Postmortem Brain Tissue From the Stanley
Foundation Neuropathology Consortium
Alternate
sides of the brain are fixed in 105 phosphate buffered formalin
or frozen at -70°C, except for the brainstem and cerebellum,
which are completely frozen. The formalin fixed blocks are
embedded in paraffin. The frozen half is initially coronally
sectioned into 8-10 slices, then rapidly frozen in a slurry of
isopentane and dry ice. Regions of great interest are being
completely sectioned into 14 micron (frozen) or 10 micron (fixed)
sections. Except for these regions, small 0.5 to 1.0 gm. blocks
are available for research. Regions completely sectioned to date
are the hippocampus-amygdala, anterior striatum, and prefontal
cortex. Other areas to be completely sectioned are the anterior
cingulate, part of the brainstem, and part of the
thalamus-hypothalamus.
Researchers
wishing to obtain these brains should fill out the required
application. Brain tissue will be allocated on the basis of
tissue availability, quantity requested, and relative importance
of the proposed project.
Researchers
must agree to the following conditions for participation:
1.
Researcher will test all 60 brains.
2. Brains will be sent coded and the code will vary from
researcher to researcher. Once your study has been completed,
you will send us the results and we will simultaneously send
you the code. Whenever possible, we would like to receive
your results on a disc.
3. You may publish the results of your study wherever you
wish, acknowledging the Stanley Foundation Neuropathology
Consortium as the source of the brains.
Acknowledgement
at the end of any such publication should read:
“Postmortem
brains were donated by the Stanley Foundation Brain
Consortium courtesy of Drs. Llewellyn B. Bigelow, Juraj
Cervenak, Mary M. Herman, Thomas M. Hyde, Joel E. Kleinman,
José D. Paltàn, Robert M. Post, E. Fuller Torrey, Maree J.
Webster, and Robert H. Yolken.4.
You may not share the samples with other researchers. You
will notify us if you take the samples with you if you move
to another institution or if you wish to use the samples for
research other than that which you originally proposed.
5. If more than one researcher wishes to do the same
measurement (e.g., D4 receptors, interleukins), we will
notify both parties involved that the other(s) are also doing
that measurement. We plan to notify all Consortium
participants of all ongoing research projects by means of a
Web page.
6. If any measurements are made after the code has been
broken on your initial samples, you should note in any
publication of the work that the work was done unblinded. You
can apply for re-coded samples.
7. The results we receive from you will become part of a
Stanley Foundation Neuropathology Consortium data set in
which results from various studies will be correlated.
Correlations will be done both by anatomical region (e.g.
different measurements in the anterior hippocampus) as well
as by type of measurements (e.G., GABA receptors in different
regions). The results of these correlations and comparisons
between diagnostic groups will be published under the Stanley
Foundation Neuropathology Consortium with one or two
researchers from each research site listed at the top of the
article. Individual authorship at the beginning of the
article will go to (a) any researcher whose data comprises 20
percent or more of the data being reported in that article
and (b) individuals involved in data analysis and
administration of the Consortium. Final decisions regarding
authorships will be decided by a Consortium Authorship
Committee consisting of Drs. Joel Kleinman, Fuller
Torrey, and Robert Yolken.
In summary, by
sharing the same brains among a broad group of researchers, we
hope to resolve conflicting neuropathological, neurovirological,
neuroimmunological, and neurochemical findings which have been
reported; provide a more definitive description of brain
pathology in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major
depression compared to each other and to normal controls; and to
stimulate further research in this field.
Additional
information on the Consortium can be obtained from Dr. Torrey at:
E.
Fuller Torrey, M.D.
Stanley Foundation Research Studies
NIMH Neuroscience Center at St. Elizabeths Hospital
2700 Martin Luther King Avenue, SE
Washington DC 20032
202-373-6105/Fax: 202-373-6252
E-mail: [email protected] DIRPC.NIMH.NIH.GOV