The creation of an in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) model is crucial to study the cellular biology of the BBB and its role in drug transport studies. A typical in vitro BBB model consists of a porous membrane submerged in culture medium that supports monolayer cell growth. The range of system variable set points (membrane configuration, media composition) and cell culture variable set points (species, generation, co-culture setup) used to create an in vitro BBB model is large, and we present an extensive screen of membrane configuration effects to select an optimized model. Primary mouse brain cell cultures are used to screen several model parameters, and selection of the optimal configuration is based on the ability of endothelial cells to form a tight barrier across the different configurations as measured with three characterization techniques: transendothelial electrical resistance, diffusive permeability of a fluorescently labeled solute, and immunocytochemistry microscopic visualization.

Membrane configuration optimization for in vitro blood-brain barrier models

244th National Meeting (2012)

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