A Low Permeability Microfluidic Blood-Brain Barrier Platform with Direct Contact between Perfusable Vascular Network and Astrocytes.

A novel three dimensional blood brain barrier (BBB) platform was developed by independently supplying different types of media to separate cell types within a single device. One channel (vascular channel, VC) is connected to the inner lumen of the vascular network while the other supplies media to the neural cells (neural channel, NC). Compared to co-cultures supplied with only one type of medium (or 1:1 mixture), best barrier properties and viability were obtained with culturing HUVECs with endothelial growth medium (EGM) and neural cells with neurobasal medium supplemented with fetal bovine serum (NBMFBS) independently. The measured vascular network permeability were comparable to reported in vivo values (20 kDa FITC-dextran, 0.45 ± 0.11 × 10