At the CBR, an aliquot from each sampled tissue is paraffin embedded, sectioned, and stained for histological analysis. A dedicated team of pathologists reviews slides from all tissue specimens to verify the organ source and to characterize both general pathological characteristics, such as autolysis, as well as organ-specific pathological states and inflammation. Of course not all organs will be entirely normal, but donor eligibility is broad and not restricted to specific diseases or conditions, and it is expected that many organs will be free of major disease processes. An aliquot of each tissue, fixed and stabilized in PAXgene Tissue solution, but without paraffin embedding, is sent to the LDACC for molecular analysis. Policies and systems for accessing stored tissue samples are currently being developed. The CBR's histologic sections are viewed as digitally scanned images, which allow precise annotations to be made to indicate where downstream studies, e.g., tissue microarrays and laser capture microextraction, on selected portions of a specimen can focus (e.g., lymphoid nodules in ileal mucosa or the squamous epithelium of the esophageal mucosa).
