Abstract
The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is the cellular structure between the blood flowing through the brain and the parenchymal tissues of the brain. This physiological barrier is formed by the endothelial cells of the capillary walls. It exquisitely regulates the passage of substances into and out of the brain. Astrocytes (astroglial cells) signal the endothelial cells to adopt BBB characteristics. An in vitro BBB model can be very useful for the study of the nutrition, physiology, and pharmacology of the brain. We took advantage of numerous advances made by previous researchers in this field to develop a co-culture BBB model. Capillary endothelial cells and astrocytes are isolated from the brains of miniature swine and grown on permeable membranes suspended between two chambers of media: analogous to the capillary lumen and the interstitium of the brain, respectively. The endothelial cell isolation procedure includes mechanical and enzymatic digestion of the brain tissue followed by separation of the capillary fragments, based on size and density, from other brain cells. Astrocytes are purified from these “other” cells. The endothelial cells of the capillary fragments proliferate in culture flasks and are then seeded onto the upper surface of a polycarbonate semi-permeable membrane suspended between two chambers of fluid. Astrocytes are seeded on the underside of the membranes. Their close proximity enables the astrocytes to communicate with the endothelial cells and encourage their expression of BBB characteristics without disrupting the endothelial cell monolayer. Transport studies across the monolayer can be conducted by introducing test compounds into the media on one side and observing its appearance on the other side. Mechanisms of transport can also be studied.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Reese, T. and Karnovsky, M. (1967) Fine structural localization of a blood-brain barrier to exogenous peroxidase. J. Cell Biol. 34, 207–217.
Goetz, I.E., Warren, J., Estrada, C., Roberts, E., and Krause, D.N. (1985) Long term serial cultivation of arterial and capillary endothelium from adult bovine brain. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 21, 172–180.
Bowman, P.D., du Bois, M., Dorovini-Zis, K., and Shivers, R.R. (1990) Microvascular endothelial cells from brain. In Cell Culture Techniques in Heart and Vessel Research (Piper, H.M., ed.), pp. 140–157, Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
Abbott, N.J., Hughes, C.C.W., Revest, P.A., and Greenwood, J. (1992) Development and characterization of a rat brain capillary endothelial culture: towards an in vitro blood-brain barrier. J. Cell Sci. 103, 23–37.
Mischeck, U., Meyer, J., and Galla, H.J. (1989) Characterization of gamma glutamyl transpeptidase activity of cultured endothelial cells from porcine brain capillaries. Cell Tissue Res. 256, 221–226.
Wall, R.T., Harker, L.A., Quadracci, L.J., and Striker, G.E. (1978) Factors influencing endothelial cell proliferation in vitro. J. Cell. Physiol. 96, 203–214.
Castellot, J.J., Jr., Addonizio, M.L., Rosenberg, R., and Karnovsky, M.J. (1981) Cultured endothelial cells produce a heparin like inhibitor of smooth muscle cell growth. J. Cell Biol. 90, 372–379.
Thornton, S.C., Mueller, S.N., and Levine, E.M. (1983) Human endothelial cells: use of heparin in cloning and long-term serial cultivation. Science 222, 623–625.
Raub, T.J., Kuentzel, S.L., and Sawada, G.A. (1992) Permeability of bovine brain microvessel endothelial cells in vitro: barrier tightening by a factor released from astroglioma cells. Exp. Cell Res. 199, 330–340.
Gaillard, P., van der Sandt, I., Voorwinden, L., D.Vu, D., Nielsen, J., de Boer, A., and Breimer, D. (2000) Astrocytes increase the functional expression of P-glycoprotein in an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier. Pharm. Res. 17, 1198–1205.
Gaillard, P., Voorwinden, L., Nielsen, J., Ivanov, A., Atsumi, R., Engman, H., Ringbom, C., de Boer, A., and Breimer, D. (2001) Establishment and functional characterization of an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier, comprising a co-culture of brain capillary endothelial cells and astrocytes. Eur. J. Pharm. Sci. 12, 215–222.
Maciag, T., Cerundolo, J., Ilsley, S., Kelley, P.R., and Forand, R. (1979) An endothelial cell growth factor from bovine hypothalamus: identification and partial characterization. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 76, 5674–5678.
Hoyer, L.W., de Los Santos, R.P., and Hoyer, J.R. (1973) Antihemophilic factor antigen: localization in endothelial cells by immunofluorescent microscopy. J. Clin. Invest. 52, 2737–2744.
Voyta, J.C., Via, D.P., Butterfield, C.E., and Zetter, B.R. (1984) Identification and isolation of endothelial cells based on their increased uptake of acetylated-low density lipoprotein. J. Cell Biol. 99, 2034–2040.
Dehouck, M.P., Meresse, S., Delorme, P., Fruchart, J.C., and Cecchelli, R. (1990) An easier, reproducible, and mass-production method to study the blood-brain barrier in vitro. J. Neurochem. 54, 1798–1801.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Bobilya, D.J. (2010). A Model for Transport Studies of the Blood–Brain Barrier. In: Yan, Q. (eds) Membrane Transporters in Drug Discovery and Development. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 637. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-700-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-700-6_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-60761-699-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-60761-700-6
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols