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. 2017 Mar 17:76:7.16.1-7.16.16.
doi: 10.1002/cpph.21.

Assessment of Ex Vivo Transport Function in Isolated Rodent Brain Capillaries

Gary N Y Chan  1 , Ronald E Cannon  1
Affiliations

Assessment of Ex Vivo Transport Function in Isolated Rodent Brain Capillaries

Gary N Y Chan et al. Curr Protoc Pharmacol. .

Abstract

The blood-brain barrier plays an important role in neuroprotection; however, it can be a major obstacle for drug delivery to the brain. This barrier primarily resides in the brain capillaries and functions as an interface between the brain and peripheral blood circulation. Several anatomical and biochemical elements of the blood-brain barrier are essential to regulate the permeability of nutrients, ions, hormones, toxic metabolites, and xenobiotics into and out of the brain. In particular, high expression of ATP-driven efflux transporters at the blood-brain barrier is a major obstacle in the delivery of CNS pharmacotherapeutics to the brain. The complete understanding of these elements can offer insights on how to modulate barrier functions for neuroprotection against CNS drug toxicity and to enhance drug delivery to the brain. In the literature, preclinical models of the blood-brain barrier are widely utilized to predict drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics properties in the brain. In addition, these models are essential tools to investigate cellular mechanisms and novel interventions that alter barrier function and permeability. This unit presents procedures to isolate fresh and viable rodent brain capillaries for the assessment of ex vivo transport activity at the blood-brain barrier. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Keywords: blood-brain barrier; brain; capillaries; microvessel; rodent.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Dissected rat brain tissue (left) ready for homogenization step and un-dissected tissue (right).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Brain capillary-rich pellet (at the bottom of the tube) after the Ficoll centrifugation step.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
An assembled 300 um filter unit.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
An assembled pluriStrainer unit.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
An overall schema of the brain capillaries isolation.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Morphology of rat brain capillaries captured using A) up-right microscope (20X magnification) and B) light contrast confocal microscope (40 X magnification).
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Morphology of rat brain capillaries captured using A) up-right microscope (20X magnification) and B) light contrast confocal microscope (40 X magnification).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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