Models to Study Blood-Brain Barrier Function

Models to Study Blood-Brain Barrier Function 

In vitro models mimicking the characteristics of the blood-brain barrier in a realistic manner provide a broad field of application in experimental, pharmaceutical, and clinical studies. In contrast to in vivo studies, which are mainly 

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Chapter 17 In Vitro Models to Study Blood-Brain Barrier Function 399... 

Primary cultures developed from pig and cow tissue are the best studied [29-32]. These models closely resemble the BBB, exhibiting many of the key biological properties. However isolation of blood-brain endothelial cells requires relatively complex cell isolation procedures which are labor-intensive and not ideal for screening purposes. Other cell types have been shown or proposed to induce barrier function, for example, astrocytes/pericytes. Significant improvements in barrier function was achieved in these primary culture models by including astrocyte conditioned media or co-culturing with astrocytes [33]. The complexity of primary cultures led to the use of epithelial cell lines not derived from the BBB (e.g., MDCK, MDCK-MDRl or LLC-PKl) [33]. 

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