A Brief History of Brain Archiving

Gere, Cathy

doi:10.1076/jhin.12.4.396.27916

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Germany (Mecklenburg): Delivery of the bodies of the executed, suicides, and indigent poor as well as unclaimed bodies to the anatomist Prof. Josephi in Rostock (Schuhmacher and Wischhusen, 1970) 1789-1947 USA: US congress and individual states of the US give bodies of the indigent poor to Medical Schools (Sappol, 2002(Sappol, ) 1798 France: Unclaimed bodies from prisons, hospitals, and poorhouses (Duffin, 1999;Gere, 2005Gere, ) 1931 Austria: Delivery of unclaimed bodies from hospitals, private homes, and mental institutions to Anatomical Departments (Mühlberger, 1998(Mühlberger, ) 1952 German Democratic Republic: unclaimed bodies and bodies donated by the deceased or family (Schuhmacher and Wischhusen, 1970)…”

Section: And 1866mentioning

confidence: 99%

Capital punishment and anatomy: History and ethics of an ongoing association

Hildebrandt

2007

Clinical Anatomy

102

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Anatomical science has used the bodies of the executed for dissection over many centuries. As anatomy has developed into a vehicle of not only scientific but also moral and ethical education, it is important to consider the source of human bodies for dissection and the manner of their acquisition. From the thirteenth to the early seventeenth century, the bodies of the executed were the only legal source of bodies for dissection. Starting in the late seventeenth century, the bodies of unclaimed persons were also made legally available. With the developing movement to abolish the death penalty in many countries around the world and with the renunciation of the use of the bodies of the executed by the British legal system in the nineteenth century, two different practices have developed in that there are Anatomy Departments who use the bodies of the executed for dissection or research and those who do not. The history of the use of bodies of the executed in German Anatomy Departments during the National Socialist regime is an example for the insidious slide from an ethical use of human bodies in dissection to an unethical one. There are cases of contemporary use of unclaimed or donated bodies of the executed, but they are rarely well documented. The intention of this review is to initiate an ethical discourse about the use of the bodies of the executed in contemporary anatomy.

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Section: And 1866mentioning

confidence: 99%

Capital punishment and anatomy: History and ethics of an ongoing association

Hildebrandt

2007

Clinical Anatomy

102

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“…The brain consists of soft tissue that is difficult to preserve. The prospect of archiving brains became practicable only after social restrictions were overcome and preservation techniques were made impeccable [6] .…”

Section: Brain Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were mainly associated with private anatomy schools and were used for educational purposes. However, only a few of said museums possessed archived brains due to the difficulty of their preservation [6] .…”

Section: Brain Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These brain banks follow precise ethical, social, and legal guidelines for the recruitment of potential donors in antemortem donation programs, postmortem examination, and data processing and sharing [43–45]. According to Gere [6], the new approach involving antemortem donation programs and prospective archiving signified that brains were no longer a passive subject of display like in brain collections but a means of active intervention. Brains from modern brain banks are well‐characterized, accompanied by a personal, clinical, and drug history, and data on neurological function, brain imaging, genetic predisposition, clinical trials, and biomarker studies.…”

Section: Modern Brain Banksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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From brain collections to modern brain banks: A historical perspective

Carlos

Poloni

Medici

et al. 2019

A&D Transl Res & Clin Interv

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Our current knowledge of the structure, function, and diseases of the brain comes from direct examination of its substance. In the last centuries, only a few elite had managed to retrieve, gather, and preserve the elusive brain for their own research. The resulting brain collections, stored in formalin-filled jars or dried up in cabinets, served anatomical, neuropathological, anthropometric, ideological, and diagnostic purposes. In the 1960s, the first modern brain banks actively collecting and strategically preserving both diseased and healthy brains to be consequently distributed to the scientific community were instituted. In an era where state-of-the-art biochemical “Omic” studies and advanced metabolic and molecular neuroimaging exist, it is now, more than ever, that postmortem brain investigations must be performed. Only through the comparison and integration of postmortem neuropathological and biochemical findings and antemortem data from clinical, neuropsychological neuroimaging, and other biomarker examinations can we truly understand neurological disease mechanisms. Brain banks supplying brain specimens, antemortem information, and postmortem diagnosis are a major benefactor of brain research.

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“…For these purposes, modern BBs archive well-characterized, high-quality brain tissues making them available for the scientific community 3,24 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

Poloni

Medici

Carlos

et al. 2020

JoVE

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In a constantly aging population, the prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders is expected to rise. Understanding disease mechanisms is the key to find preventive and curative measures. The most effective way to achieve this is through direct examination of diseased and healthy brain tissue. The authors present a protocol to obtain, process, characterize and store good quality brain tissue donated by individuals registered in an antemortem brain donation program. The donation program includes a face-to-face empathic approach to people, a collection of complementary clinical, biological, social and lifestyle information and serial multi-dimensional assessments over time to track individual trajectories of normal aging and cognitive decline. Since many neurological diseases are asymmetrical, our brain bank offers a unique protocol for slicing fresh specimens. Brain sections of both hemispheres are alternately frozen (at-80 °C) or fixed in formalin; a fixed slice on one hemisphere corresponds to a frozen one on the other hemisphere. With this approach, a complete histological characterization of all frozen material can be obtained, and omics studies can be performed on histologically well-defined tissues from both hemispheres thus offering a more complete assessment of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms. Correct and definite diagnosis of these diseases can only be achieved by combining the clinical syndrome with the neuropathological evaluation, which often adds important etiological clues necessary to interpret the pathogenesis. This method can be time consuming, expensive and limited as it only covers a limited geographical area. Regardless of its limitations, the high degree of characterization it provides can be rewarding. Our ultimate goal is to establish the first Italian Brain Bank, all the while emphasizing the importance of neuropathologically verified epidemiological studies. 3. Meanwhile in the USA, Wallace Tourtelotte introduced antemortem brain donation programs to facilitate solicitation of

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A Brief History of Brain Archiving

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

Capital punishment and anatomy: History and ethics of an ongoing association

Capital punishment and anatomy: History and ethics of an ongoing association

From brain collections to modern brain banks: A historical perspective

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains

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