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Hi, Simon, The Parkinson's Institute (we're located in Sunnyvale, CA for those of you who don't know us) only accepts brains for donation, primarily for two reasons. One, no one here has requested tissue from other organs; if they do, there are two banks maintained by NIH that can share such tissue. Two, storage is a major problem with a whole body donation; we are not equipped and I don't know of anyone who is outside of a medical school, where bodies are used regularly for anatomy studies, among other things. We have about 110 brains in our collection at the moment and would certainly welcome inquiries from both patients and family members or friends, whose brains would serve as controls in our studies. Thanks for raising this subject--it's a REALLY important one! At 07:16 PM 9/19/98 +0100, you wrote: >>I wonder why researchers check only brain tissue when dealing >>with PD and other neurological diseases. Why don't they >>correlate their findings on brain tissue with tissue from other >>organs.......especially liver tissue? > >They do sometimes. I remember seeing a presentation where they were talking >about Lewy bodies (the presence of which is a major indicator of PD) and >they said these often turned up in other organs. > >As to why they only request *brain* donations rather than *whole body*, I >don't know. Maybe a representative of one of the Brain Banks is here..... > > > >Simon >--------- My opinions are my own, NIP's opinions are theirs ---------- >Simon J. Coles Email: [log in to unmask] >New Information Paradigms Work Phone: +44 1344 778783 >http://www.nipltd.com/ Work Fax: +44 1344 772510 >=============== Life is too precious to take seriously =============== > > Carole Cassidy Director of Developmenet and Community Relations The Parkinson's Institute 1170 Morse Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94089 408-542-5628 direct line 408-734-8522 fax