CARDIOVASCULAR
SINGLE CELL RESEARCH LAB
CARDIOVASCULAR TISSUE BANK
1. CARDIOVASCULAR TISSUE COLLECTION & PRESERVATION
In research involving human tissues, researchers are met with difficulties due to:
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Tedious collection process from the ethical approval to the manpower and facility required for collection and processing of tissue.
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Accumulation of sufficient number of samples, especially rare tissue types require prolonged period of time
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Approved research grants are time restricted and requires tissue to be readily available
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Thus, the Cardiovascular Tissue Bank aims to facilitate tissue availability for amplifying research in the field of cardiovascular medicine. It would collect and store human tissue specimens obtained from patients with cardiovascular diseases undergoing cardiac surgeries, in advance for upcoming and ongoing projects. These patients are invited to give their consent to donate leftover tissues for future research purposes. Patients will also be encouraged to donate blood, which will be processed to plasma, platelets, PBMCs, and granulocytes.
​All specimens are de-identified and can be provided in various forms- fresh frozen samples, extracted DNA, RNA, primary cultures, paraffin-embedded and cryostat sections, based on the needs of individual projects.
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Types of specimens available:
Frozen Tissue Type | No. of Cases with Frozen Aliquots | No. of Cases with Paraffin Blocks | Blood Type | No. of Cases with Frozen Aliquots |
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Aortic punches | 1840 | 736 | Plasma | 1212 |
Saphenous vein | 109 | 494 | Platelets | 1214 |
Internal mammary artery (IMA) | 404 | 167 | PBMCs | 1026 |
Mitral valve | 145 | 129 | Granulocytes | 1213 |
Aortic valve | 139 | 127 | ||
Tricuspid valve | 4 | 1 | ||
Biological valve | 2 | 0 | ||
Aneurysm Thoracic | 9 | 6 | ||
Aneurysm Abdominal | 3 | 2 | ||
Artery | 21 | 15 | ||
Radial Artery | 41 | 2 | ||
Endarterectomy carotid | 8 | 3 | ||
Plaque from artery | 7 | 8 | ||
Pericardium | 1 | 1 | ||
Left atrium | 9 | 7 | ||
Right atrium | 7 | 2 | ||
Left ventricle | 1 | 0 | ||
Right ventricle | 2 | 0 | ||
Fats | 8 | 1 | ||
Muscle tissue from IMA | 1 | 0 | ||
Skin | 0 | 1 | ||
Normal aorta (postmortem) from overseas tissue bank | 10 | 20 |
We are interested in project collaborations utilizing the banked specimens with researchers of various expertise, such as genomics, proteomics and bioengineering. Please fill in the form below and send it to us at xiao_yun_lin@nuhs.edu.sg for further discussion.
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**IMPORTANT: Please note that only IRB-approved projects can apply to access the specimens
2. PATIENT-SPECIFIC HUMAN CARDIOVASCULAR CELLS (In Progress)
We are currently developing a series of protocols that will allow us to obtain patient-specific human cardiovascular cells and immune cells from the dissociation of aortic tissues and blood processing. Several cell types that we are able to provide in the near future include:
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Endothelial cells (EC)
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Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC)
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Immune cells (from patient tissues)
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Macrophages (PBMC-derived)
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3. 3D VASCUALR MODELLING (SPHEROIDS) (In Progress)
An three-dimensional (3D) cell culture system that mimic key factors of tissue including gene expression would be more representative of the in vivo physiological environment compared to two-dimensional (2D) culture. 3D vascular patient-specific vascular models can be generated using patient-specific cells derived from patient tissues.