Abstract
Blood vessels in the central nervous system (CNS) are unique in forming the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which confers high electrical resistance and low permeability properties, thus protecting neural cells from potentially harmful blood components. Endothelial cells, which form the inner cellular lining of all blood vessels, play a critical role in this process by forming tight adhesive interactions between each other. To study the properties of primary brain endothelial cells (BECs), a number of different methods have been described. In this chapter, we present a relatively simple method that produces high numbers of primary mouse BECs that are highly pure (greater than 99 % CD31-positive). In addition, we also describe an immunocytochemical approach to demonstrate the endothelial purity of these cultures.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society; Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Award (R.M.), and Postdoctoral Fellowship (J.V.W.-A.), by the American Heart Association (Western State Affiliate) Postdoctoral Fellowship (A.B.), and by the NIH grant RO1 NS060770.
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Welser-Alves, J.V., Boroujerdi, A., Milner, R. (2014). Isolation and Culture of Primary Mouse Brain Endothelial Cells. In: Milner, R. (eds) Cerebral Angiogenesis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1135. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0320-7_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0320-7_28
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-0319-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-0320-7
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