Establishment of a novel human nervous system tissue bank: University of Debrecen Tissue Bank – Introduction and retrospective data analysis

Human brain tissues obtained from autopsies, as well as muscle and nerve samples derived from biopsies, constitute indispensable resources for translational research investigating the pathomechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we introduce the Nervous System Tissue Bank of University of Debrecen, which contains formalin-preserved and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) brain samples, as well as frozen nerve and muscle biopsy specimens. Database was established containing clinical and pathological parameters. For autopsy cases, the following variables were recorded: sex, age, number of hospitalization days, admission diagnosis, comorbidities, cause of death, post-mortem interval, general autopsy findings, and macro- and microscopic brain pathology diagnoses. For biopsy samples, we recorded: sex, age, biopsy site, and microscopic and molecular genetic diagnoses. Based on the recorded parameters and their temporal changes, retrospective statistical analyses were performed. Formalin-fixed brain samples and FFPE blocks were available from 2,425 deceased individuals, and nerve/muscle samples from 257 patients. The brain samples originate from the period between 1990 and 2012. The most frequent admission diagnoses included ischemic stroke (n = 1070), hemorrhagic stroke (n = 462), subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 102), epilepsy (n = 103), brain metastasis (n = 70), primary brain tumor (n = 60), parkinsonism (n = 28), dementia (n = 21), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 21). Prevalence of hypertension (67.6%) and diabetes mellitus (20.1%) showed a significant increase over time (p < 0.001), whereas the prevalence of malignancies, dementia, parkinsonism, and psychiatric disorders remained stable. Our tissue bank represents the largest nervous system collection in Hungary, providing well-characterized brain, muscle, and nerve samples linked to nearly three decades of clinical data. Samples are made available to researchers.