Human-Specimen Banking

UK Biobank is a long-term human-specimen bank that will be initiated at full scale in 2006, although pilot projects are under way. The project will collect information, including blood (fractioned to plasma or serum) and urine samples, from 500,000 participants 40-69 years old. The study will follow participants over 20-30 years to study progression of chronic diseases. 

K. S. Subramanian, Canadian Human Specimen Bank an emerging Great Lakes health effects program, Sci. Total Environ., 139/140 (1993), 109-121. 

Fig. 12.5 The Multi-Markered BioincJication Concept (MMBC) with its functional and integrated windows of prophylactic health care (from Markert et al. 2003a). Explanations in the text. DAT (for data), ECO (for ecology), ESB (for environmental specimen banking), TRE (for trend), MED (for medicine) and HSB (for human specimen banking) designate individual toolboxes and their test sets.

Schroter-Kennani C, Helm D, Hermann T, et al. 2000. The German environmental specimen bank-application in trend monitoring of polybrominated diphenyl ethers in human blood. Organohalogen Compounds 47 49-52. 

German Environmental Specimen Bank Established to systematically collect, process, characterize, and store environmental samples. Blood and other human specimens have been collected since 1981 from about 100 unexposed persons (German Federal Environmental Agency 2006). 

The German Environmental Specimen Bank, initiated in 1985, annually samples and archives specimens to determine the effectiveness of environmental regulations and to conduct retrospective monitoring (European Commission 2004). The bank collects six types of human specimens— whole blood, blood plasma, scalp hair, pubic hair, saliva, and 24-hour urine samples from people 20-29 years old in four cities (Munster, Halle/ Saale, Greifswald, and Ulm). Screening is conducted to determine the pres-... 

The Swedish Environmental Specimen Bank is a centralized storage bank that has been operational for 20 years. It conducts annual sampling of a variety of environmental and human specimens for use in a number of studies, including retrospective analyses. Regional banks store human blood for use in these studies (European Commission 2004). 

Lee, L.W., J. Griffith, H. Zenick, and B.S. Hulka. 1995. Human tissue monitoring and specimen banking Opportunities for exposure assessment, risk assessment, and epidemiologic research. Environ. Health Perspect. 103(Suppl. 3) 3-8. 

Bertram HP, Kemper FH, Muller C and Cuellar JA (1985) Trace metal pattern of human blood, saliva and hair environmental specimen banking. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment, Vol. 2, pp. 102-104, Toronto. 

Therefore, the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB) of the Federal Government was established in 1985 with the purpose of storing representative samples from the terrestrial and aquatic environment as well as from human beings for future decades without any change in chemical composition. 

The specimen species from the human field (fatty tissue, liver, kidney, blood, urine, hair, saliva) are stored in the specimen bank for human organ samples at the University of Munster. The range of analyzed elements and organic pollutants is largely identical with that of the environmental specimens in order to detect any possible connections between the pollution situation in man and his immediate environment. 

The tree specimens (spruce shoots, beech leaves) collected and stored since 1985 from the regions of the environmental specimen bank also provide convincing documentation of the decrease in lead pollution (see Fig. 6). The same is also true for the human field, as con-... 

Although there are several ethical concerns with biobanks and other large-scale research repositories (Rothstein, 2002), the most important issue is informed consent. Participants in research involving human subjects must be advised of the intended research to be performed with their specimens. With biobanks, however, the future research uses of the samples are unknown at the time of collection. It would be infeasible to contact each of the donors to obtain consent every time a new research use is contemplated, yet IRBs are reluctant to approve the use of blanket consent for unspecified uses. One way to avoid this problem is for prospective sample donors to be given a menu of possible uses of their samples. Such a list might include research in mental health, HIV/AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, or other areas. The donors would then have the opportunity to approve the use of their specimens for all or some of the listed uses. Other disclosures necessary to obtain informed consent include the financial interests of the biobank and researchers, whether individuals may elect to be notified of research findings, and whether it is possible for an individual to withdraw his or her sample from the bank (Rothstein, 2002). 

Tissue banks are the most common source of human tissues. While surgical biopsy accessions are preferred, they are limited in availability and often unavailable for many tissues (e.g., brain and other vital organs). Therefore the majority of tissue samples used in cross-reactivity studies are those acquired at autopsy. For autopsy accessions all efforts must be made to minimize the time interval between death and tissue collection. Information provided with specimens generally includes age, gender, and usually race and some clinical history and/or cause of death. As suggested in the Points-to-Consider document, the tissues used in a standard tissue cross-reactivity study are acquired from adults (>18 years of age). Pediatric tissues are often very difficult to obtain and are usually not used in a standard tissue cross-reactivity study unless there is a clear pediatric indication for the test article. 

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