NEUROPATHOLOGY CORE

ADRC的神经病理学核心（NPC）将对中心评估的个人进行尸检，以及其他同意在UCLA医疗中心到期的神经退行性疾病患者，或其尸体为此目的转移到这里。检查的患者将包括ADRC中的“对照组”和通过UCLA-CHS尸检服务的对照组;在后一组中，将向家庭成员/近亲进行简短的电话问卷调查，以评估尸检个体在生活中是否认知正常（这是核心的新举措）。除了对这些患者提供适当的诊断（基于最先进的免疫组织化学研究）外，所有可能尸检的组织和CSF将被快速冷冻，储存，并提供给研究阿尔茨海默病和相关疾病的研究人员。NPC致力于为开展出色研究但缺乏良好表征的尸检组织/液体的中心提供研究材料。这些资源也将分发给需要获取组织的当地研究者。AD患者、非AD痴呆患者和对照组的尸检脑标本是提供给定患者的“金标准”诊断的重要资源，并且可以帮助评估治疗效果或不必要的并发症。随着疾病进展的生物标志物越来越多地用于监测生活中的疾病进展以及对治疗的反应，了解这些生物标志物的形态解剖学相关性（作为疾病严重程度的测量）变得至关重要。一组生物标志物，即标记脑淀粉样蛋白的新神经成像技术，需要在尸检脑标本中进行验证，NPC为此类研究提供了有价值的材料。NPC具有广泛的组织分布网络，并将组织传播给许多研究者。全国人大支持加州大学洛杉矶分校的项目，在国家研究（例如，GWAS），并鼓励国际合作研究。NPC致力于开发新方法（例如组织微阵列），以促进在实验系统中发现的与神经变性相关的新分子的高通量分析和表达谱，例如使用果蝇和啮齿动物的那些。最后，NPC致力于通过协助制定协议，教学，会议以及提供组织和神经病理学数据来支持ADRC内的其他核心和项目。

The Neuropathology Core (NPC) of the ADRC will perform autopsies on individuals evaluated in the Center, and other consented patients with neurodegenerative diseases who expire at UCLA Medical Center, or whose bodies are transferred here for that purpose. Patients examined will include 'controls' followed in the ADRC and control subjects that come through the UCLA-CHS autopsy service; in the latter group, a brief telephonic questionnaire will be administered to family members/next of kin to assess whether an autopsied individual had been cognitively normal during life (this is a new initiative of the core). In addition to providing appropriate diagnoses on these patients (based upon state-of-the-art immunohistochemical studies), tissues and CSF from all possible autopsies will be rapidly frozen, stored, and made available to investigators doing research in Alzheimer disease and related disorders. The NPC is committed to providing research materials to Centers doing excellent research, but who lack availability of well-characterized autopsy tissues/fluids. These resources also will be distributed to local investigators requiring access to tissues. Autopsy brain specimens from patients with AD, non-AD dementias and controls are an important resource to provide a 'gold standard' diagnosis in a given patient, and can assist in the evaluation of treatment efficacy or unwanted complications. As biomarkers of disease progression are increasingly used to monitor disease progression during life, as well as responses to therapy, understanding the morphoanatomic correlates of these biomarkers (as measures of disease severity) becomes crucial. One group of biomarkers, viz. new neuroimaging techniques that label brain amyloids, needs to be validated in autopsy brain specimens, and NPC is providing valuable material for such a study. The NPC has a wide tissue distribution network and disseminates tissue to many investigators. The NPC supports projects at UCLA, collaborates on national studies (e.g., GWAS), and encourages international collaborative studies. The NPC is committed to developing new methods (e.g. tissue micro-array) to facilitate high throughput analysis and expression profiles of new molecules relevant to neurodegeneration, which are discovered in experimental systems, e.g. those using Drosophila and rodents. Finally, the NPC is committed to supporting other Cores and Projects within the ADRC through assistance with developing protocols, teaching, conferences, and providing tissue and neuropathologic data.