Pediatric Blood-Brain Barrier Chip
The naturally-occurring blood-brain barrier is a mesh of capillaries within which endothelial cells are spaced so tightly that they form a selectively permeable filter between circulating blood and cerebral fluid. Small molecules of oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose and certain proteins can pass, but large molecules, which may be neurotoxins, cannot. Mimicking this, researchers at Temple University have created a microvascular network on a chip that resembles a microscope slide. The chip has two compartments: one forming the capillaries’ endothelial structure, and the other, of brain astrocytes. In both compartments, the actual cells are from young rats. Moving fluids between the two allows early testing of potentially therapeutic drugs. MORE
Image Credit: Temple University