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Related Experiment Video

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Brain Banking: Making the Most of your Research Specimens

Brain Banking: Making the Most of your Research Specimens

Published on: July 24, 2009

Evaluating ultrastructural preservation quality in banked brain tissue.

Macy Garrood¹, Alicia Keberle¹, Allison Sowa²

¹Apex Neuroscience, Salem, Oregon, USA.

Free Neuropathology

|June 26, 2025

Summary

Analyzing postmortem brain tissue reveals that even with ambiguous interstitial zones in electron microscopy images, light microscopy can still show cell structures. This aids in using banked human brain tissue for research.

Keywords:

Brain banking Connectomics Neurofilaments Perfusion fixation Postmortem changes Ultrastructural quality

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

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Published on: June 3, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Histology
Electron Microscopy

Background:

Postmortem brain tissue analysis is crucial for understanding neural circuits and diseases.
Electron microscopy (EM) data interpretation is challenging with imperfect preservation, common in brain banking.
Ambiguous interstitial zones (extracellular space/degraded material) are artifacts in EM images of postmortem brains.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a method for assessing ambiguous interstitial zone artifacts in postmortem brain EM images.
To evaluate light microscopy (LM) structural preservation in matched postmortem brain samples.
To determine the utility of banked human brain tissue for connectomics and other research.

Main Methods:

Assessed ambiguous interstitial zone artifacts in EM images from 10 postmortem brains (cortex and thalamus).
Evaluated LM image quality, including cytoskeletal immunostaining, in contralateral hemisphere samples.
Examined synaptic structure tracing across serial EM sections.

Main Results:

Light microscopy preserved cell membrane morphology and visualized neurite trajectories over micrometer distances, despite EM artifacts.
Synaptic structures were successfully traced in serial EM sections from some postmortem samples.
The study identified correlations between EM artifacts and LM preservation quality.

Conclusions:

Light microscopy offers valuable structural information from postmortem brain tissue, even with EM artifacts.
Banked human brain tissue can be suitable for connectivity studies with proper protocols.
This research informs tissue selection and preparation to maximize the utility of donated brains for neuroscience research.