Pathology Tissue Biobanking

1
Pathology Tissue Biobanking

• Between 40-80 million tissue and cell specimens
  are stored, primarily for diagnosic purposes
• Each year another 1.5 million specimens are added
• The 33 Departments of Pathology in Sweden
  represent the largest biobank in the country

2

• Tissue specimens are fixed in formalin and mainly
  stored as paraffin blocks.
• This material is suitable for
• Protein expression studies using
  immunohistochemistry
• DNA extraction, NB with risk of degradation
• mRNA studies with ISH techniques

3

• There is need for improvement of tissue quality
  so that the biobank can meet new demands
• Improvement of
• logistics
• tissue preservation
• representativity
• Registration procedures database quality

4

• With financial support from WCN we have started
  to establish a pilot biobank that meets these new
  demands by
• Optimization of the system for fresh tissue
  collection preservation
• Collection of parallell blood specimens
• Development of a routine for tissue selection
  microdissection
• Optimization of techniques for preparation of DNA
  and cDNA
• Establishment of a SQL database

5

• First year objectives
• Specimens from Department of Plastic Surgery
  information of staff
• Improvement of logistics transportation from
  operation theatre via courier or tube system
• 100 cases in 3 months tumour and normal tissue
  ? -70o
• Establishment of database (T, M, ID, comments,
  storage, consent etc.)
• Frozen section digital picture ? database
• Test of alternative fixation techniques
• Inventory of present frozen tissue specimens ?
  SQL database

6

• Future objectives
• Involvement of pathologist
• Incorporation of further departments ? 20-30
  fresh tissue specimens/day
• Blood specimen ? storage of separated blood cells
  serum
• Frozen section technique (15 µm) for
  microdissection
• Extraction of DNA mRNA from microdissected
  specimens ? technique for amplification of
  genomic and cDNA in one reaction
• Electronic admission note