Cardiovascular

Heart disease state samples available:

Please contact us to find out how we can provide you with the heart or vascular tissues you require.

Via our partner clinical biobanks we can provide a wide range of diseased-heart tissue samples.

We can provide, from biorepositories or prospective tissue collections:

- Normal donor hearts (post mortem only)

- Cardiovascular disease tissue specimens, as well as whole hearts and blood vessel biosamples from heart disease donors, including:

aortic valve stenosis
arteriosclerosis
atherosclerosis
cardiac atrophy
heart bypass operations
coronary/other calcification
cardiomyopathy (ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy)
congestion
epicarditis
coronary fibrosis
heart failure
ventricular assist device placement
hypertension
hypertrophy
cardiac infarction
cardiac inflammation
mitral valve (Myxomatous degeneration, myxoid degeneration, fibrosis, cardiac valvulopathy, severe mitral regurgitation, Nodular myxomatous degeneration of cardiac valve,
myocyte nucleomegaly
myxoid degeneration
cardionecrosis
pacemaker placement
papillary fibroelastoma (rare)
heart transplant rejection (rare)
sarcoidosis of the heart (rare)
stent placement
heart wall thickening

Please inquire in case the cardiovascular condition you are interested in studying tissue samples from is available but not listed above.

Donor Types:

Clinical tissue donors:

A wide range of cardiovascular diseases, including those listed above, are available from our clinical tissue donor partner sites. Clinical donors range in age from their 20s (rare) to 80s.

Clinical tissue sample formats:

Samples are often available with FFPE, frozen tissue, plasma, serum and buffy coat available from the same donor, with pathology details and extensive medical history & follow-up information.

Post mortem tissue donors:

Accio Biobank Online is delighted to announce that to further expand the range of fresh organ and tissue research we can support, we have partnered with a highly experienced organ procurement network. This means that we can facilitate your access to non-transplantable organs and tissues kindly donated by organ donors.

Post mortem donors are mostly aged 60+. The shortest interval between death and sampling is 3 hours, but such donors are rare, and increasing the window to 8 or more hours will greatly increase the number of donors available to study.

Post mortem organ/ tissue sample formats:

Whole hearts, cardiac tissue samples and vascular tissue samples are available fresh, frozen or fixed in 10% NBF. A pathology report is not available, although specific clinical reports, such as details of heart-related operations, may be requested.

Organ/ tissue sample types and sizes:

Working with our partner post mortem donor facilities, we can provide:

whole hearts
arteries from any location, including the carotid artery, aorta, pulmonary artery
veins from any location, including carotid vein, pulmonary vein etc
any surrounding tissues
a range of heart diseases, such as those listed above
normal hearts

Please note: these organs and tissue samples are only available for research purposes.

The heart specimens we work with are not approved for in vivo, clinical or transplant use.

Unfortunately, we can not accept or register potential specimen donors directly; please contact your clinician, hospice or hospital who will be better placed to provide advice regarding how to donate.

Thank you.