Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Modeling of the Blood-Brain Barrier

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays an important role in maintaining brain health and is often compromised in disease. Moreover, as a result of its significant barrier properties, this endothelial interface restricts uptake of neurotherapeutics. A renewable cell source for human BBB modeling could prove enabling for brain research and pharmaceutical development.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) differentiated into brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) were recently shown to possess many BBB attributes, including well-organized tight junctions, polarized efflux transport, and nutrient transporter expression. In this talk, we will demonstrate that the process of hPSC differentiation to BBB cells is also compatible with disease modeling using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines, can be used in the isogenic modeling of the neurovascular unit, and can be employed for the evaluation of experimental drug permeability attributes. Furthermore, we will describe the development of a microfluidic BBB device designed for personalized medicine