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Experimental Tools to Study the Regulation and Function of the Choroid Plexus

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Blood-Brain Barrier

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 142))

Abstract

There is an increasing recognition of the choroid plexus’ (CP) functional relevance for brain homeostasis, and its malfunction has been associated with neurologic diseases, in newborns, young adults, and the elderly, like kernicterus, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease. Yet, the CP still remains an overlooked organ requiring further investigation.

The minute size of the CP, particularly in rodent models, increases the difficulties associated with the implementation of suitable protocols to address the ever-increasing research questions. In recent years we have implemented fundamental methods to study gene expression and function in the CP. These include CP epithelial cell (CPEC) primary cultures; use of CP explants for expression analysis, and electrophysiology and bioluminescence assays; Ca2+ imaging; gene silencing in CP epithelial cell lines; and transport studies across blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB) in vitro models. This chapter describes these protocols aiming to attract more researchers willing to enhance the current knowledge on CP functions and the relevance of its malfunction to the central nervous system pathophysiology.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal—http://www.fct.pt) project grants (PTDC/SAU-NEU/114800/2009, project UID/Multi/04326/2013 and project UID/Multi/00709/2013), and FEDER funds through the POCI—COMPETE 2020—Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization in Axis I—Strengthening research, technological development and innovation (Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007491), the Swedish Research Foundation, the Swedish Brain Foundation, Åke Wibergs stiftelse, and Karolinska Institutet Research Funds. T Quintela is a recipient of a FCT fellowship (SFRH/BPD/70781/2010). AC Duarte is a recipient of ICON. Joana Tomás was supported by a grant from CENTRO-07-ST24-FEDER-002015. This work and AC Duarte were supported by “Programa Operacional do Centro, Centro 2020” through the funding of the ICON project (Interdisciplinary Challenges On Neurodegeneration; CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CICS-UBI - Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

    Isabel Gonçalves, Telma Quintela, Ana Catarina Duarte, Graça Baltazar, Joana Tomás & Cecília Reis A. Santos

  2. Centre of Marine Sciences-CCMAR, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal

    Peter Hubbard

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany

    Christian Schwerk

  4. Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Andrea Carmine Belin

Authors
  1. Isabel Gonçalves
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  2. Telma Quintela
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  3. Ana Catarina Duarte
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  4. Peter Hubbard
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  5. Graça Baltazar
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  6. Christian Schwerk
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  7. Andrea Carmine Belin
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  8. Joana Tomás
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  9. Cecília Reis A. Santos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cecília Reis A. Santos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), Houston, TX, USA

    Tatiana Barichello

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Gonçalves, I. et al. (2019). Experimental Tools to Study the Regulation and Function of the Choroid Plexus. In: Barichello, T. (eds) Blood-Brain Barrier. Neuromethods, vol 142. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8946-1_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8946-1_13

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  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8945-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8946-1

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