New Florida Bank Of Injured Brain Tissues Will Aid Nationwide Studies Of Head Injuries

Brain injury affects more people than stroke or Alzheimer's and is the leading cause of death in Americans under age 45. Some 5.3 million Americans live with disabilities resulting from head injury, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The bank, under the direction of physician and pathology Professor Thomas Eskin, will store samples of brain tissue from victims of brain injury and will serve as a state and national resource for the development of medical and rehabilitative therapies for patients. Although the date of the bank's opening is not yet scheduled, researchers are now procuring tissues for it in the same way that organ donation programs encourage people to sign consent cards to have vital organs contributed to medical science upon their death.

The bank is dedicated to traumatic brain injuries and unique in its link with the UF Brain Institute's powerful new magnetic imaging systems (including an 11.7-tesla imaging magnet) for analyzing tissues. A multidisciplinary research team at the institute is launching new studies aimed at developing effective medical and rehabilitative therapies for individuals with brain injuries.

"Because so little is understood about the mechanisms by which brain cells are damaged or killed after head injury, there are no standard FDA-approved treatments," said Ronald Hayes, a professor of neuroscience and neurosurgery who directs UF's Center for Traumatic Brain Injury Studies. "When an injured person seeks medical care, there is no assurance that the treatment given at one hospital will remotely resemble what would be done at another hospital.

"Having a bank of tissue from people with brain injuries will greatly aid our efforts to gain information that can be applied in patient care, which is our real goal," Hayes added. "Recent findings, through post-mortem analysis of brain tissue from patients with brain injuries, indicate many of them have the same kinds of brain lesions such as the amyloid plaques found in patients with Alzheimer's. Therefore, just as banks of tissue from Alzheimer's patients have led to greater understanding of this disease, our new tissue bank will help scientists learn more about traumatic brain injury."

Hayes, who has discovered in rats that biochemical brain damage continues to occur at least a month after traumatic brain injury, said, "The widely varying types of physical and mental impairments associated with such injuries make it tougher to design treatments that will boost chances for recovery."

People who suffer a head injury may experience impaired ability to think, speak, concentrate and remember. They also may develop seizures, muscle spasms, loss of smell or taste, headaches, fatigue and balance disorders, and/or emotional disturbances such as depression, mood swings, increased agitation and anxiety.