D. Hoheisel et al., HYDROCORTISONE REINFORCES THE BLOOD-BRAIN-BARRIER PROPERTIES IN A SERUM-FREE CELL-CULTURE SYSTEM, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 244(1), 1998, pp. 312-316
The increasing number of newly developed drugs demands for functional
in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier to determine their brain up
take. Cultured cerebral capillary endothelial cells are considered to
be such a model, however in serum containing media they exhibit low el
ectrical resistances and high permeabilities compared to the in vivo s
ituation. Here we report the establishment of a serum-free cell cultur
e model. Withdrawal of serum already caused a twofold increase of tran
sendothelial resistance (TER), which in presence of serum is about 100
-150 Ohm . cm(2). We tested several supplements and found that hydroco
rtisone is a potent stimulator for the formation of barrier properties
. TERs up to 1000 Ohm . cm(2) were measured in the presence of physiol
ogical relevant hydrocortisone concentrations. In correspondence to th
e TER increase hydrocortisone decreased cell monolayer permeability fo
r sucrose down to 5 . 10(-7) cm/s, which is close to the in vivo value
of 1.2 . 10(-7) cm/s and by a factor of five lower compared to cultur
es without hydrocortisone and in presence of serum. (C) 1998 Academic
Press.