Mission

The Neuropathology Cores of the Oregon Health & Sciences University and the University of Washington Alzheimer's Disease Centers have embarked on a unique cooperative endeavor to better serve the neurodegenerative research community. Beginning in 2003, these independent cores agreed to standardize a variety of parameters such as tissue collection, histochemical and immunohistochemical staining protocols, diagnostic criteria and reporting, with the goal minimizing the inherent variability in the diagnosis and classification of these complex neurodegenerative disorders. As a result, this collaborative venture promises to facilitate future clinicopathologic studies while increasing the available well-characterized, and consistently-characterized tissue resources to the neuroscience community.

Focus

The OHSU and UW NP Cores have been in operation for more than 15 years with overlapping but complementary focuses. OHSU studies have been directed to patients demonstrating healthy aging, while those at UW are on familial forms of dementia; both groups have collected materials on a variety of geriatric dementias.

Protocols

Flash-frozen tissues for potential biochemical and molecular biologic studies are obtained from nearly all cases, with extensive sampling in select instances. In most cases, 22 sections are taken following formalin fixation from all lobes of the left and right hemispheres, the white matter, deep gray structures, brainstem, cerebellum and spinal cord (as available). The sections are routinely stained with hematoxylin and eosin / Luxol fast blue, Bielschowski silver staining, Congo Red, and for hyperphosphorylated tau and a-synuclein by immunohistochemistry. This degree of sampling allows classification based on the NIA-Reagan Institute criteria for AD pathologic changes (Working Group on Molecular and Biochemical Markers of Alzheimer's Disease, 1998), Dementia with Lewy Bodies consensus criteria (Consensus guidelines for the clinical and pathologic diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB Consortium on DLB International Workshop, 1996), Frontotemporal Dementia consensus criteria (Work Group on Frontotemporal Dementia and Pick's Disease, 2000), Braak staging of Lewy bodies (Braak, H. et al., 2003), and the Honolulu Asian-American Study criteria for microvascular lesions (White, L, et al., 2002). Standardization of neuropathologic interpretation between the two institutions is achieved by the review of individual cases by neuropathologists from each NP core, as well as the participation of the neuropathologists in monthly clinical and pathologic correlative conferences held at each Alzheimer's Disease Center.

Tissue Requests

To make a tissue request, please contact either of the following (contact information below):

Precautions

These are human tissues and as such must be considered potentially infectious. Establishment of a diagnosis does not exclude the possibility of concomitant additional processes. All specimens will be accompanied by this label (pdf format).