The Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) / Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center Brain Bank (BB) has been operating for approximately 18 years. The schizophrenia component of the bank has been in operation since 1989. Because of this long history, an operating structure for the BB already exists and over 950 brain tissue specimens have been banked and include 204 schizophrenia cases 163 of whom were antemortem assessed and diagnosed by the Clinical Core. In addition, 90 neuropsychiatric and neuropathologic control case are also available. Additional schizophrenic and control cases are accrued on a continual basis and the enrollment projections and objectives of the Clinical Assessment Core indicate that the number of schizophrenic cases available for autopsy will continue or grow during the next 5 years. All specimens are collected with the absolute minimum postmortem delay as possible (average PMI = 5 hours for cases with legal next of kin present (44%)). Each brain specimen is banked in both flash-frozen and fixed form and receives a full state-of-the-art neuropathology assessment. Clinical records are searched for every case and all medical conditions and medications received during at least the last 12 months of life are recorded. To serve the needs of Projects1 and 2 of the CCNMD and to expand the generality of the findings from these two projects, the Brain Bank has made collaborative arrangements with Brain Banks at the NIMH and U. Penn to obtain brain tissue specimens from other cohorts of schizophrenics and normal controls, including individuals with schizophrenia dying at relatively young ages.
The aim of this core is to optimize the operations of the BB to meet the needs of projects 1 (Hof; Oligodendroglia) and 2 (Buxbaum; Myelin Gene Products) of the CCNMD as well as to meet the needs of future, as yet, unspecified studies. The Brain Bank serves as a resource to multiple investigators within and outside the CCNMD serving the tissue needs of researchers at Mount Sinai and multiple other national and international institutions. During the next 5 years, we will continue to obtain short postmortem interval autopsy of antemortem assessed schizophrenic patients residing at our affiliated institutions and nursing homes and the rapid autopsy and characterization of non-demented, nonpsychiatrically ill normal elderly controls.
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