The importance of permeable substrates for proper vascular endothelial barrier function (preview)
This data comes from our collaborators in Switzerland who are working on a BBB culture model using NPN. In this study they are looking at the effects of co-culture on barrier function. The co-culture is with pericytes and a vascular brain endothelial cell line that they are cultivating. The permeability is measured with the passage of a small fluorescent dye. Co-culture enhances the barrier function but pericyte conditioned media added to endothelial cells does the same thing. Even more impressive is that if the conditioned media is added to the luminal side of the membrane, it does not lower the permeablity. It needs to be added to the basal compartment! This both illustrates the importance of a permeable substrate for endothelial culture and that the membranes are polarized on porous substrates. The figure on the left was done on track-etched membranes. The figure on the right is a repeat of the key result on NPN.
