Figure 1.

Characterization of the human BBB model cultured in the lab-on-a-chip (LOC). (a) Representative illustration of the device. The plastic slides carrying the gold electrodes to measure transendothelial electric resistance (TEER) are positioned at the top and bottom of the device, followed by the top and bottom channels made by PDMS and the cell culture membrane in the middle. The layers of the LOC were joined with screws. The female luer inlets were located on the top and provided easy access for both top and bottom channels. (b) Diagonal view of the LOC. Human brain endothelial cells were added to the top compartment, brain pericytes to the bottom. (c) Dynamic condition: the device was connected to a peristaltic pump and a reservoir containing cell culture medium. Fluid flow was applied at a speed of 1 ml/min for 24 hours. (d) Phase contrast images of brain endothelial cells under static and dynamic conditions. Scale bar: 100 μm. (e) TEER results were normalized to the values of the static condition which did not receive any fluid flow, values are presented as means ± SD, unpaired t-test, **p < 0.01, n = 12. (f) Apparent permeability coefficient (Papp) of the human BBB model under static and dynamic conditions, for Lucifer yellow (LY) and Evans blue labelled albumin (EBA) marker molecules. Data is shown as the % of the static condition and presented as means ± SD (unpaired t-test, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, n = 5–8).