The Indiana-based Human Fetal Tissue Bank (Indiana-Midwest Regional HuFT Bank) is located at Indiana University School of Medicine and is made up of a coordinating office, an extensive data base and 6 testing/research labs. Fetal tissue sources include several local participating hospitals, and will include satellite hospitals in 7 major cities in five Midwestern states--Chicago, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and Detroit. The Indian-Midwest Regional HuFT Bank will collect tissue from various brain regions, liver, pancreas, and muscle. Only tissue obtained through spontaneous abortions and ectopic pregnancies will be collected. Special efforts will concentrate on brain (nigra, striatum, septum, raphe, cortex) and liver tissues. Viability, pathological, genetic, and functional tests will be performed to determine suitability of donor tissue for transplantation. This bank will be set up to provide fetal tissue/cells in four conditions, two in major tissue/cell types and two in selective cell types. Major tissue/cell type conditions will include (a) fresh tissue/cells viably stored (for up to 3 days without cryopreservation) in a hibernating medium, to be used for immediate grafting and to test the effectiveness of the medium in transport and in short-term accumulation, and (b) dissociated cells that will be cryopreserved for long-term storage. The selective cell types will be used to: (c) immortalize cell lines which stop proliferating after grafting, and (d) encapsulize primary cells for immunoprotection. The Indiana-Midwest Regional HuFT Bank will investigate the incidence of spontaneous abortions and ectopic pregnancies in the proposed six-state region and generate statistics on availability of donor tissue that successfully passes the viability, pathological, and functional tests. A Macintosh database will be constructed to store information from tissue sources, tissue analysis, tests, banking, and distribution. Four experimental research programs will be conducted to (a) optimize storage conditions for hibernation and cryoprotection, (b) immortalize brain cells from substantia nigra, raphe, and cortex, which will increase the supply of chemically or regionally defined cell types obtained from a minimal source, (c) encapsulize the donor brain cells for immunoprotection, and (d) transplant liver-pancreas co-culture into rat liver to study changes in liver functions.
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