Improved Method for the Establishment of an In Vitro Blood-Brain Barrier Model Based on Porcine Brain Endothelial Cells

Summary

The aim of the protocol is to present an optimized procedure for the establishment of an in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) model based on primary porcine brain endothelial cells (pBECs). The model shows high reproducibility, high tightness, and is suitable for studies of transport and intracellular trafficking in drug discovery.

Abstract

The aim of this protocol presents an optimized procedure for the purification and cultivation of pBECs and to establish in vitro blood-brain barrier (BBB) models based on pBECs in mono-culture (MC), MC with astrocyte-conditioned medium (ACM), and non-contact co-culture (NCC) with astrocytes of porcine or rat origin. pBECs were isolated and cultured from fragments of capillaries from the brain cortices of domestic pigs 5-6 months old. These fragments were purified by careful removal of meninges, isolation and homogenization of grey matter, filtration, enzymatic digestion, and centrifugation. To further eliminate contaminating cells, the capillary fragments were cultured with puromycin-containing medium. When 60-95% confluent, pBECs growing from the capillary fragments were passaged to permeable membrane filter inserts and established in the models. To increase barrier tightness and BBB characteristic phenotype of pBECs, the cells were treated with the following differentiation factors: membrane permeant 8-CPT-cAMP (here abbreviated cAMP), hydrocortisone, and a phosphodiesterase inhibitor, RO-20-1724 (RO). The procedure was carried out over a period of 9-11 days, and when establishing the NCC model, the astrocytes were cultured 2-8 weeks in advance. Adherence to the described procedures in the protocol has allowed the establishment of endothelial layers with highly restricted paracellular permeability, with the NCC model showing an average transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER) of 1249 ± 80 Ω cm², and paracellular permeability (P_app) for Lucifer Yellow of 0.90 10^-6 ± 0.13 10^-6 cm sec^-1 (mean ± SEM, n=55). Further evaluation of this pBEC phenotype showed good expression of the tight junctional proteins claudin 5, ZO-1, occludin and adherens junction protein p120 catenin. The model presented can be used for a range of studies of the BBB in health and disease and, with the highly restrictive paracellular permeability, this model is suitable for studies of transport and intracellular trafficking.

Introduction

Cellular Structure and Function of the Blood-Brain Barrier

At the interface of the circulatory and central nervous system (CNS), the BBB acts as a key regulatory site for homoeostatic control of the CNS microenvironment, which is essential for proper function and protection of the nervous system. The site of the BBB is the endothelial cells lining the blood vessel lumen. In brain capillaries, endothelial cells form complex intercellular tight junctions and strongly polarized expression patterns of particular influx and efflux transporters ensure highly specific molecular transport between the blood and the brain ¹. The ....

Protocol

Porcine brains were obtained as byproducts of the Danish food industry. Danish Slaughterhouses are under strict supervision and observation by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food.

Rats used for isolation of astrocytes were bred and group-housed in the local animal facility at an ambient temperature of 22 °C-23 °C and on a 12/12 h dark/light cycle under inspection of the veterinarian and according to Danish regulations for lab animals. The rats were euthanized before they were sacrificed in accordance with international guidelines on the ethical use of animals (European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986; 86/....

Results

Establishment of the BBB In Vitro Models

In the presented, optimized method, cultivation of pBECs and the establishment of the permeable membrane insert system with MC or without ACM or NCC with astrocytes (Figure 1) was carried out for a period of 9-11 days (Figure 2). For selection of endothelial cells, an initial culture of purified capillary fragments was comb.......

Discussion

Purification and Proliferation of pBEC

During the purification procedure, critical steps include rapid and effective removal of meninges and separation of white and grey matter, which is important for the purification yield and purity and for the proper establishment of the model. For the presented in vitro BBB model using pBECs, we have improved and simplified a purification procedure based on mechanical homogenization of isolated grey matter, size-selective filtering for isolation of m.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Fibronectin	Sigma-Aldrich	F1141
Collagen IV	Sigma-Aldrich	C5533
Poly-L-lysine	Sigma-Aldrich	P1524
DMEM/F-12	Lonza	BE12-719F
DMEM/Low Glucose	Sigma-Aldrich	D6046
Penicillin/Streptomycin	Gibco Invitrogen	15140
Plasma derived serum (PDS)	First Link UK Ltd.	60-00-89
Fetal bovine serum (FBS)	Gibco Invitrogen	10-270-106
Trypsin/EDTA	Gibco Invitrogen	15090-046
Heparin	Sigma-Aldrich	H3393
Puromycin	Sigma-Aldrich	P8833
Hydrocortisone	Sigma-Aldrich	H4001
8-CPT-cAMP	Biolog	C010
RO 20-1724	Sigma-Aldrich	B8279
Gentamicin Sulfate	Lonza	17-518Z
DMSO	Sigma-Aldrich	34896
PBS	Sigma-Aldrich	D8537
EtOH	VWR	20,824,296	Mix the 70 % solution from the 96 % EtOH
DNAse 1	Sigma-Aldrich	D4513
Collagenase CLS2	Sigma-Aldrich	C6885
ddH2O			Made with Elga System
T75 flasks	Thermo Scientific	156499
Costar Transwell inserts (Cell permeable membrane inserts)	Costar	CLS3401	12-well plate, 12 mm diameter, 0.4 μm polycarbonate membrane
15 ml centrifuge tubes	Cellstar	188271
50 ml centrifuge tubes	Cellstar	227261
Petri dishes	Thermo Scientific	150350
Cryo vials	Thermo Scientific	377224
500 ml bottle	Thermo Scientific	159910/159920
Scalpels	Swann-Morten	REF0211	Type 24
Tissue homogenizer	Sigma	D9188
140 μm filters	MERCK	NY4H04700
40 μm filters	Corning	431750
EndOhm chamber system	World Precision Instruments	ENDOHM-12	EndOhm chamber for 12mm Culture Cups
EVOM2 electrode system	World Precision Instruments	300523+STX100C	TEER measurement system with rigid STX-100C electrode pair
Long needle	Sigma		Attach to a syringe
Fine-tip curved forceps	KLS Martin	12-409-12-07
Broad tip forceps	VWR	82027-390
Filter holder	MERCK Milipore	Swinnex-47
50 ml syringe	Braun	4617509F
10 ml syringe	Terumo	SSt20ESI
Anti-Occludin antibody	Abcam	ab31721	1:100
Anti-p120 Catenin antibody	BD Transduction laboratories	610133	1:200
Anti-ZO-1 antibody	Invitrogen	61-7300	1:200
Anti-Claudin 5 antibody	Sigma-Aldrich	SAB4502981	1:100
Donkey anti rabbit IgG conjugated with Alexa Flour 568	Thermo Scientific	A10042	1:500
Donkey anti mouse IgG conjugated with Alexa Flour 488	Thermo Scientific	A21202	1:500
Sucrose	Perkin Elmer	NEC100X250UC	0.15µl/ml final working conc
Lucifer Yellow	Sigma	L0144	10 µg/ml final working conc