A Novel Dynamic Neonatal Blood-Brain Barrier on a Chip

Studies of neonatal neural pathologies and development of appropriate therapeutics are hampered by a lack of relevant in vitro models of neonatal blood-brain barrier (BBB). To establish such a model, we have developed a novel blood-brain barrier on a chip (B(3)C) that comprises a tissue compartment and vascular channels placed side-by-side mimicking the three-dimensional morphology, size and flow characteristics of microvessels in vivo. Rat brain endothelial cells (RBEC) isolated from neonatal rats were seeded in the vascular channels of B(3)C and maintained under shear flow conditions, while neonatal rat astrocytes were cultured under static conditions in the tissue compartment of the B(3)C. RBEC formed continuous endothelial lining with a central lumen along the length of the vascular channels of B(3)C and exhibited tight junction formation, as measured by the expression of zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1). ZO-1 expression significantly increased with shear flow in the vascular channels and with the presence of astrocyte conditioned medium (ACM) or astrocytes cultured in the tissue compartment. Consistent with in vivo BBB, B(3)C allowed endfeet-like astrocyte-endothelial cell interactions through a porous interface that separates the tissue compartment containing cultured astrocytes from the cultured RBEC in the vascular channels. The permeability of fluorescent 40 kDa dextran from vascular channel to the tissue compartment significantly decreased when RBEC were cultured in the presence of astrocytes or ACM (from 41.0±0.9 x 10(−6) cm/s to 2.9±1.0 x 10(−6) cm/s or 1.1±0.4 x 10(−6) cm/s, respectively). Measurement of electrical resistance in B(3)C further supports that the addition of ACM significantly improves the barrier function in neonatal RBEC. Moreover, B(3)C exhibits significantly improved barrier characteristics compared to the transwell model and B(3)C permeability was not significantly different from the in vivo BBB permeability in neonatal rats. In summary, we developed a first dynamic in vitro neonatal BBB on a chip (B(3)C) that closely mimics the in vivo microenvironment, offers the flexibility of real time analysis, and is suitable for studies of BBB function as well as screening of novel therapeutics.