The blood brain barrier (BBB) represents one of the strictest barriers of in vivo therapeutic drug delivery. The barrier is defined by restricted exchange of hydrophilic compounds, small proteins and charged molecules between the plasma and central nervous system (CNS). For decades, the BBB has prevented the use of many therapeutic agents for treating Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, brain tumor, h...

There are a number of different experimental methods for ex vivo assessment of blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening based on Evans blue dye extravasation. However, these methods require many different steps to prepare the brain and need special equipment for quantification. We here report a novel, simple, and fast semiquantitative algorithm to assess BBB integrity ex vivo. The method is particular...

The central nervous system (CNS) is vascularized by a dense capillary network that is critical to deliver oxygen and nutrients, and remove carbon dioxide and waste products, from the neural tissue. These blood vessels contain a series of properties, termed the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which distinguishes them from vasculature in other tissues, enabling CNS vessels to stringently regulate the ...

In autoimmune neurologic disorders, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays a central role in immunopathogenesis, since this vascular interface is an entry path for cells and effector molecules of the peripheral immune system to reach the target organ, the central nervous system (CNS). The BBB's unique anatomic structure and the tightly regulated interplay of its cellular and acellular components a...

Most studies concerning effects of neural stimuli on the cerebral circulation have focused on changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF). The purpose of this study was to examine effects of sympathetic nerves on permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to albumin, using a quantitative method, and to relate changes in blood flow to changes in permeability of the BBB. Permeability of the BBB was e...

The human blood brain barrier (BBB) is a selective barrier formed by human brain endothelial cells (hBECs), which is important to ensure adequate neuronal function and protect the central nervous system (CNS) from disease. The development of human in vitro BBB models is thus of utmost importance for drug discovery programs related to CNS diseases. Here, we describe a method to generate a human ...

Vascularization of the vertebrate brain takes place during embryonic development from a preformed perineural vascular plexus. As a consequence of the intimate contact with neuroectodermal cells the vessels, which are entering the brain exclusively via sprouting angiogenesis, acquire and maintain unique barrier properties known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The endothelial BBB depends upon t...

Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) is a dynamic anatomical interface that separates brain parenchyma from blood circulation and is principally constituted by the cerebral microcapillary endothelial cells [1,2]. BBB is composed of distinct structural and functional organization through the presence of inter-endothelial tight junction complexes, abundant expression of nutrient and efflux transporters incl...

estrogen (e2) has neuroprotective effects on blood-brain-barrier (bbb) after traumatic brain injury (tbi). in order to investigate the roles of estrogen receptors (ers) in these kind of effects, er-α antagonist (mpp) and, er-β antagonist (phtpp), or non-selective estrogen receptors antagonist (ici 182780) were administered as regulators of cns cytokines levels and neuroinflammation after tbi. m...

Inflammatory cell trafficking into the brain complicates several neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis. Normally, reliable brain functioning is maintained and controlled by the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which is essential to restrict the entry of potentially harmful molecules and cells from the blood into the brain. The BBB is a selective barrier formed by dedicated brain endothe...