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. 2005 Feb;25(1):201–210. doi: 10.1007/s10571-004-1384-9

Human Cerebral Microvessel Endothelial Cell Culture as a Model System to Study the Blood–Brain Interface in Ischemic/Hypoxic Conditions

Zoltán Nagy 1,5,✉, Mónika Vastag 1,2, Kraszimir Kolev 3, Zoltán Bori 1, István Karádi 4, Judit Skopál 4
PMCID: PMC11529507  PMID: 15962514

Abstract

1. Cerebral ischemia and reperfusion induce several changes on the endothelial cells at the microcirculatory level.

2. Vasogenic brain edema due to compromised blood–brain barrier, transformation of the endothelial cell surface from an anticoagulant to a procoagulant property are important factors in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke.

3. Release of prostaglandins, endothelin-1, complement proteins, and matrix metalloproteinase-9 by microvascular endothelial cells are other components in the complex mechanism of brain ischemia/hypoxia.

4. Ultrastructural studies documented the opened paracellular avenues in the course of vasogenic edema in different experimental models.

5. Tight junctions of endothelial cells have been characterized with freeze fracture electron microscopy, and the process of transvesiculation was analyzed using rapid freeze and freeze substitution procedure before electron microscopy studies.

6. In endothelial cell-culture experiments, we used rodent and later human brains.

7. Endothelial cells co-cultured with astroglia resulted in an elaborate tight junctional complex.

8. This co-culture technique becomes the basis of in vitro blood–brain barrier studies. On endothelial cells of human brain origin, different regulatory factors found to be responsible for the complex mechanism of ischemic stroke.

Key words: microvascular endothelium, brain ischemia, blood–brain barrier.

Footnotes

This paper is dedicated to the memory of F. Joó, the good friend and pioneer in endothelial cell research.

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