Idiopathic pulmonary hypertension human tissue biobank

Abstract

Idiopathic pulmonary hypertension (IPH) is characterized by elevated pulmonary arterial pressure. The pathophysiology has not been elucidated and research has been frustrated by a lack of quality, well‐characterized tissue samples. The Pulmonary Hypertension Breakthrough Initiative (PHBI) was established to characterize the genotype, cellular basis, and biomolecular pathways of IPH and to fund a network of ten lung transplantation centers, two tissue processing centers and a coordinating center. As one of the tissue processing centers, our laboratory operates the PHBI Biobank. This is a disease‐specific biobank for IPH tissues. Standard operating procedures were designed for the collection, processing, and storage of samples. Lung transplantation centers enroll and obtain consent for the collection of tissues, and clinical histories from participants prior to transplantation. Blood is obtained for genotyping or processing prior to banking. Following lung explantation, fresh samples are shipped immediately. Execution of the standard operating protocol yields over 100 aliquots of tissue that are frozen or preserved using multiple techniques to accommodate analysis of cells, protein, DNA, and RNA. All fixed samples are sent to the Biobank where they are bar‐coded, linking them to annotated clinical data. To date tissue has been obtained from 51 lung transplants and >1000 samples have been distributed.