Iacoviello Licia, De Curtis Amalia, Donati Maria Benedetta, de Gaetano Giovanni
Unit of Molecular & Nutritional Epidemiology, Department of Epidemiology & Prevention, IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy.
Future Cardiol. 2014 Mar;10(2):243-54. doi: 10.2217/fca.13.110.
Biobanks for medical research are organized collections of biological samples associated with personal data and information on their donors, to be stored for an indefinite period of time. The storage of biological samples has varied considerably over time, ranging from the informal storage of tissue specimens in a researcher's freezer in the past, to the present well-structured formal repositories. Large-scale population-related biobanks are being set up in several countries and will allow not only research into individual diseases, but also approaches to a wide range of health-related issues, such as physical activity, eating, drinking, education and pollution, among others. The purpose of this article is to discuss how biobanks have improved research in cardiovascular disease epidemiology and prevention, by describing the most relevant population-based epidemiological studies that used set-up biobanks and stored samples for research. The selection of epidemiological studies and biobanks was based on their dimensions and their contribution to the field.
医学研究生物样本库是与个人数据及其捐赠者信息相关联的生物样本的有组织集合，将被无限期存储。生物样本的存储方式随时间有很大变化，从过去研究人员冰箱中对组织标本的非正式存储，到如今结构完善的正规储存库。几个国家正在建立大规模的与人群相关的生物样本库，这不仅将有助于对个体疾病的研究，还能用于研究广泛的健康相关问题，如体育活动、饮食、饮酒、教育和污染等。本文的目的是通过描述使用已建立的生物样本库并存储样本用于研究的最相关的基于人群的流行病学研究，来讨论生物样本库如何改进心血管疾病流行病学和预防方面的研究。流行病学研究和生物样本库的选择基于其规模及其对该领域的贡献。
