[3dem] Effects of Long-Term Storage on Preserved Brain Tissue Samples

[Devin Ward]

Hello,

I’m leading a study to measure how very long-term storage in aldehydes
affects tissue integrity, as a student at the University of Rochester. I'm
hoping you can help me find (or put me in touch with someone who can help
me find) some archival brain samples suitable for the project.

Happy to include people as coauthors on the eventual paper if they can get
us samples! Sample requirements below the cut.

Best regards,

Devin Ward

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Example of an ideal sample:

A rat brain were perfused with 3% glutaraldehyde in phosphate buffer in
1982, one hemisphere was sliced and processed for electron microscopy and
the other hemisphere was stored in fluid at 4°C until today. You still have
the original electron micrograph films and resin blocks in addition to the
hemisphere in fluid.

Example of an acceptable sample:

A rat brain were perfused with 4% formaldehyde in NBF (neutral-buffered
formalin) in 1995, but for whatever reason no imaging was done at the time
of preparation. The brain has been retained in NBF since then, sometimes in
a refrigerator and sometimes at RT, but was never frozen. This sample would
be acceptable to us, because we can determine whether it's still
connectomically traceable even without original imaging from 1995.

Some "near miss" samples (unsuitable but only because of one issue):


   1.

   A human brain sample was taken 4 hrs post-mortem and stored for 30 years
   in NBF. This would not be acceptable because 4 hours post-mortem causes
   enough damage that the tissue is no longer traceable. If the tissue had
   been taken during surgery, with a minimal post-mortem interval, then it
   would be acceptable.

   2.

   EM blocks and films are still available from a mouse brain perfused in
   1972, but not the actual brain itself. This is unacceptable because we want
   to measure the effects of prolonged storage in fixative, not resin.
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