NIH Reporter #5P01HL164311-04

Core A: Ultrastructural Assessment & Human Tissue

Award to University of California Los Angeles for Core A: Ultrastructural Assessment & Human Tissue, providing essential tissue procurement, imaging, and molecular biology services to support heart and stellate ganglion research under a Program Project Grant funded by NHLBI.

Description

The goal of the Ultrastructural Assessment and Human Tissue Core is to maximize the scientific progress and productivity of the PPG investigators by providing essential services. The primary function of Core A is to serve human and porcine myocardial and stellate ganglion tissue needs across all projects and Core B. Given significant regulatory and logistical hurdles needed to procure and study human heart and stellate ganglion tissues, it is ideal for this to be handled by a central core. The core will perform three key functions for the study: 1) tissue clearing and ultrastructural imaging; 2) procurement of normal (or near normal) and diseased human tissues, specifically hearts and stellate ganglia; and 3) molecular biology. All 3 projects of this PPG will utilize at least two of these services, with tight coordination between this core and Core B, the Functional Assessment and Instrumentation Core. The core has established pipelines for obtaining diseased hearts from orthotopic heart transplant patients and normal or near-normal hearts rejected for transplant. It also has infrastructure for obtaining stellate ganglia from patients with cardiomyopathy and without cardiopulmonary disease. Centralizing tissue procurement will streamline protocols, minimize costs, and boost productivity. The core will also streamline tissue clearing from pigs and humans, involving numerous steps and chemicals, and will coordinate high-resolution imaging with study team members.

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