1Neuropathology Department, Abbiategrasso Brain Bank, Golgi-Cenci Foundation Abbiategrasso, Milan, Italy
2University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
3Rehabilitation and Neurological Department, Geriatric Institute ASP Golgi-Radaelli, Abbiategrasso, Milan, Italy
4IRCCS C. Mondino National Institute of Neurology, Pavia, Pavia, Italy
Tóm tắt
AbstractOur current knowledge of the structure, function, and diseases of the brain comes from direct examination of its substance. In the last centuries, only a few elite had managed to retrieve, gather, and preserve the elusive brain for their own research. The resulting brain collections, stored in formalin‐filled jars or dried up in cabinets, served anatomical, neuropathological, anthropometric, ideological, and diagnostic purposes. In the 1960s, the first modern brain banks actively collecting and strategically preserving both diseased and healthy brains to be consequently distributed to the scientific community were instituted. In an era where state‐of‐the‐art biochemical “Omic” studies and advanced metabolic and molecular neuroimaging exist, it is now, more than ever, that postmortem brain investigations must be performed. Only through the comparison and integration of postmortem neuropathological and biochemical findings and antemortem data from clinical, neuropsychological neuroimaging, and other biomarker examinations can we truly understand neurological disease mechanisms. Brain banks supplying brain specimens, antemortem information, and postmortem diagnosis are a major benefactor of brain research.
