NEUROPATHOLOGY CORE

University Of Kentucky, Lexington KY

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The overall objective of the Neuropathology Core of the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center[unreadable] is to support research on normal brain aging, presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive[unreadable] impairment (MCI), early and late AD, mixed dementia syndromes, and other dementing disorders. The core[unreadable] will perform short postmortem interval (2-4 hr) autopsies by our Rapid Autopsy Team on longitudinally[unreadable] followed subjects from our normal control BRAiNS Clinic, Dementia Research Clinic, and Kentucky Clinic[unreadable] North Minority Satellite (KYCN), and provide brain specimens, CSF and synaptosomes for investigators at[unreadable] UK, other ADCs, and outside investigators. The core will also provide consensus conference determined[unreadable] diagnoses, quantitation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), neuritic plaques, and diffuse plaques from 8 brain[unreadable] regions, Abeta 1-40 and 1-42 quantitation, Braak staging, CERAD, and NIA-Reagan Institute staging on all[unreadable] autopsied cases to investigators. The core will maintain a tissue bank of the above specimens and frozen[unreadable] serum, plasma, buffy coats and CSF from living patients from the Dementia Research Clinic, the normal[unreadable] control BRAiNS Clinic, and KYCN. Special emphasis will be placed on defining the neuropathological[unreadable] findings in the brains of the oldest old (>85), and providing investigators with specimens from cognitively[unreadable] normal control subjects with no Abeta and few NFT (Braak O-ll) (successful cerebral aging) and cognitively[unreadable] normal control subjects with abundant Abeta and NFT. Monthly or more frequent consensus conferences will[unreadable] be held with the Clinical Core to define clinical-pathological diagnoses on all autopsied subjects. Clinical-pathological[unreadable] conferences will be held every two months and twice annually for the Ohio Valley Geriatric[unreadable] Research Center. Support for the Nun Study, the Honolulu Asian Aging study, the UK Udall Parkinson's[unreadable] Disease Research Center and the Georgia Centenarian Study will be provided by the Neuropathology Core.[unreadable] This core's unique opportunity to conduct clinical-pathological correlative studies on longitudinally followed[unreadable] subjects to better understand normal brain aging and the transition to dementia and the factors involved in[unreadable] this transition, could contribute to early interventions and possible preventive measures.