Cell Lines for BBB Modeling

As the most basic unit in biological research, cells have been widely used as the vital study tool of basic research, drug screening, disease models and tissue engineering, thereby providing an important evidence for drug development and treatment. Although traditional animal models can more comprehensively simulate the complexity and specificity of human diseases, they are not easy to conduct a large number of repeated experiments due to the 3R principle and animal ethics issues. Compared with animal models, cell models, as a simple, fast and economical research tool, provide researchers with more opportunities to initially explore the mechanisms of disease and conduct large-scale drug screening.

BBB Models

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) refers to an extremely important histological barrier located in the intima of cerebral blood vessels, which composed of special cells including astrocytes, vascular endothelial cells and pericytes to generate neurovascular units and thereby involved in the regulation of neuronal activity. With the advancement of science and technology, more and more cell lines are used to construct in vitro BBB models. There are several cell lines that are commonly used for modeling the BBB.

• Brain capillary endothelial cell line (BCEC): The BCEC cell line is derived from brain capillary endothelial cells, which can form tight junctions and express various transporters and enzymes in the blood-brain barrier.
• Brain microvascular endothelial cell line (BMEC): The BMEC cell line is derived from brain microvascular endothelial cells and has been shown to exhibit multiple characteristics of the blood-brain barrier and can be used alone to create BBB models, such as human brain microvascular endothelial cell line (HBMEC).
• Astrocyte-derived cell lines: Astrocytes play a critical role in maintaining the integrity and function of the blood-brain barrier and are often used in combination with BCEC or BMEC cell lines to model the BBB.
• Pericyte-derived cell lines: Pericytes are another important cell type in the blood-brain barrier and are also commonly used in combination with BCEC or BMEC cell lines to model the BBB.

Ace Therapeutics provides hundreds of species, different types of cell lines that can be used alone or in combination to construct the models of BBB to study the behavior, structure and function of the blood-brain barrier, as well as for the development of drug delivery and treatment strategies for neurological diseases.

In addition to single cell lines, we provide multiple 3D coculture BBB models to more accurately represent the BBB, which typically involve a combination of endothelial cells (BCECs or BMECs) with other supporting cells such as astrocytes or pericytes.

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