Asterand has announced the availability of a new class of biomaterials designed to facilitate Alzheimer's disease research.

The company is using a technique known as silver staining to confirm Alzheimer's disease. This positive diagnosis is critically important to research workers who are working with biological samples to examine the genetic basis of the disease.

Silver staining has been recognized as a positive test for Alzheimer's for many years but Asterand is the first human tissue bank to routinely use the test on all brain samples.

Asterand has built one of the world's largest banks of biological material for research purposes at its headquarters at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. The company collects donated material through an international network of rapid autopsy programs. In every case the material is provided by donors who have willed their bodies to science and with consent from their family members. The material is used for research into a range of neurologic disorders including Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and major depression.

Asterand procures both normal and diseased human brain tissue for both genomics and proteomics research. The company has implemented detailed brain tissue procurement protocols from each donor brain for the collection of over 30 discrete neuroanatomic structures that are commonly associated with various brain disorders.

Many times however it is difficult to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The disease however, can be confirmed histologically in a sample of the patient's brain tissue using a technique known as silver staining. This technique causes nerve fibers to become more visible when brain tissues are examined microscopically. Histologic findings such as neuritic plaques and neurofibriliary tangles in the brain tissue are indicative of Alzheimer's disease.