CORE--NEUROPATHOLOGY

University Of Arkansas Med Scis Ltl Rock, Little Rock AR

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Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The propose University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) has as its mission to serve as a shared resource to facilitate and enhance interdisciplinary research in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The UAMS ADCC offers a broad range of expertise in basic, clinical, and health services research that will allow exploration of issues along the entire continuum of pre- clinical, clinical, and health services investigation. The goals of the Neuropathology Core are to obtain, diagnose, and distribute autopsy material from well-characterized AD patients and normal control subjects who have been followed in the Clinical Core. In addition, the Core will preserve and analyze blood, plasma, and buccal smear samples collected in the Clinical Core. Diagnostic evaluation will include application of CERAD criteria and Braak and Braak staging for AD changes as well as appropriate analysis for alternative or additional dementing conditions. Data from these evaluations will be stored in the form of captured visual images and as semi-quantitative analyses of neuropathological changes in a number of defined cortical and subcortical areas. One half of each autopsied brain will be dissected fresh according to a special 3-D dissection technique, and well-defined regions and structures will be fresh frozen and banked. These tissue and data will be made available, through a defined process, to local, regional, national, and international investigators. The Neuropathology Core will perform ApoE and IL-1 genotyping on samples from Clinical Core patients, and this information will be entered into the ADCC database. In addition, the Neuropathology Core will participate in education and outreach efforts among health care professionals and the general public directed toward raising awareness and knowledge about AD and especially about the importance of autopsy and neuropathological examinations. Achievement of these goals will enhance clinical care, providing valuable information to patient families, and support and facilitate both clinical and basic research directed toward diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of AD.