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Human Tissue Availability
Examples
of tissues and product categories
Blood and Body Fluids
Human Primary Cell Cultures
Tissue-derived Bioreagents
Histological Services
Tissue Specifications and Donor Medical Records
Legal Issues
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Biomarkers and Human Tissue
ABS provides a full range of tissues, human cells, blood components, body fluids, and tissue-derived bioreagents for basic research, drug discovery, and biomarkers studies. Donor medical data, histological and pathological data can be provided according to your specifications.
Examples of tissues and product
categories can be found
here.Since its inception ABS has recognized the importance of human tissue and human tissue-derived bioreagents in biomedical research and the drug discovery. While animal studies and cell culture assays play an important role in the discovery process, research directed at discovering drugs for the treatment of human disorders and fully understanding human biological functioning must ultimately seek answers using human tissues and tissue-derived bioreagents.
The only way to effectively study human genetic variation and tissue gene expression profiles in normal and disease states is through the use human tissues and human tissue extracts such as nucleic acids and proteins. Likewise, since drugs are developed for the treatment of human pathological states, it is critical that they be evaluated using human tissues and human tissue derived reagents such as membrane fractions and proteins. For example, it is well known that differences in protein sequences exist between animal and human tissues. In addition, even when human genes are expressed in various cells lines, important post-translational modifications may not be the same as in native tissues. Relying only on animal or cell cultures studies can sometimes result in very costly errors. Likewise, certain types of studies, such as biomarker investigations are only possible by using human tissues and body fluids.
Human Tissue Availability
To satisfy the needs and the time constraints of drug discovery research, ABS has developed a large network of tissues sources to quickly meet your needs. Both surgical and postmortem tissues are available. Likewise, fresh, fixed, and frozen tissues can also be provided.
The availability of high quality tissues that can be used for biological studies is sometimes a limiting factor. This is particularly true for tissues with very narrow donor restrictions, such as relatively rare diseases. Tissues from younger donors are also less available. However, we do our best to quickly fulfill your requests, including providing you with our best estimates of delivery and frequent updates so you know what to expect. A partial listing of normal and disease tissues that are in inventory is available in PDF format (Tissue Inventory.PDF).
We attempt to maintain a consistent fee structure. However, because we obtain tissues from a wide range of sources, our fee schedule may vary in accordance with the fees that we are charged. In all instances, we do our best to supply tissues in the most economical manner and still meet all you specifications and time requirements for delivery.
Blood and Body Fluids
ABS provides a wide range of custom human and animal blood cells and their components. Other body fluids, such as, urine, synovial fluid, and cerebrospinal fluid are also available.
All blood cells and blood components are prepared fresh. As with other preparations, we can use your protocols or our own proprietary procedures to purify blood cells and other blood products. We are also able to obtain blood products from donors with specific backgrounds and diseases.
We can isolate cells, prepare membranes or other cellular components, or purify proteins and nucleic acids. All blood products are prepared fresh, unless otherwise specified. We can use our own proprietary protocols or your procedures based upon your requirements. ABS collaborates with several large blood collection groups to ensure that we can quickly fulfill your orders. Some of the blood products that we regularly offer are listed below.
• Whole Blood
• Red Blood cells
• Reticulocyte rich blood
• Plasma Proteins
• Lipoproteins
• Platlets
• Leukocytes
TAB– Eosinophils
TAB– Lymphocytes
TAB– Monocytes
TAB– Neutrophils
• Extracts
• Membranes
Human Primary Cell Cultures
ABS has extensive experience in growing mammalian cells. We also provide primary human cell cultures, but there availability is limited, because while we have excellent sources of frozen human tissues, the availability of viable fresh tissues is limited. We are working to remedy this situation and may expand our offerings in this area to include the preparation of human hepatocytes and pancreatic islets.
Human Tissue Derived Bioreagents
Nearly any preparation, such as RNA, proteins, membranes, or other cellular fractions can be prepared according to your specifications in our laboratories. This avoids the potential hazards of homogenizing and processing human tissues in laboratories that set aside for the safe performance of such procedures. The types of preparations that we routinely provide are described under Custom Bioreagents in the Site.
Histological Services
Through a network of carefully selected laboratories, ABS can provide a full spectrum of histological services from fixed to frozen tissue sections. Pathologists are also available for tissue evaluation and verification of clinical diagnosis.
Tissue Specifications and Donor Medical Records
ABS can provide both diseased tissues and matched healthy control tissues .Typically, all tissues are supplied certain basic information. These include: donor age, sex, race, cause of death, and chronic illnesses. In many cases, we can also obtain other information on medications, health history, pathology reports, and even complete medical records. Such information is available for an additional fee, since it necessitates additional work by our acquisition groups.
All tissues, unless specifically indicated, are obtained from donors testing negative for HIV and hepatitis B. However, no test results should be considered as absolutely conclusive. Therefore, all human tissues and tissue-derived bioreagents should be considered as biohazards and potentially infectious, even though the likelihood of infection, particularly from processed tissues, is most probably low.
Legal Issues, Donor Informed Consent, Confidentiality
ABS only accepts and supplies tissues from organizations that comply with all applicable laws and regulations. All tissues are obtained with appropriate informed consent for use in biomedical research. Donor identities are held in strict confidence by all tissue acquisition groups employed by ABS and are not disclosed to ABS to preserve donor anonymity. Additional information, including copies of Donor Consent Forms, is available upon request.
To ensure that all appropriate regulations and guidelines are followed, all researchers must complete a Human Tissue Application Form, which may be downloaded from this site (Human Tissue Application.PDF).
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