Organoid Blood-Brain Barrier Could Improve Neurological Treatments

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Organoid Blood-Brain Barrier Could Improve Neurological Treatments


Organoid Blood-Brain Barrier Could Improve Neurological Treatments
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Researchers based in Korea have built an artificial blood-brain barrier using specialized bioink and a 3D bioprinter, which they hope will help researchers to develop better treatments for brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The blood-brain barrier is a selective, semi-permeable membrane that lies between the brain and the rest of the body. Its main role is to protect the brain from things that might harm it, such as toxins, pathogens, and the immune system.

Although this barrier is necessary and helps protect the brain, it makes treating neurological disorders that impact the brain very difficult, as many drugs cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. To help make things easier for academic and industry researchers working in this area, Jinah Jang, PhD, a professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, and Sun Ha Paek, MD, PhD, a professor based at Seoul National University, developed a specialized organoid-style model of the blood-brain barrier to be used in early-stage preclinical research.

Writing in the journal Biomaterials Research, the researchers explained that the blood-brain barrier is mostly composed of endothelial cells, which communicate with other cell types and if functioning normally, regulate neuroinflammation.

The team theorized that cerebrovascular specific decellularized extracellular matrix-based materials would be needed to make such a model. The main components were derived from brain and blood vessel extracellular matrices from pigs.

After a number of different tests to find out the best conditions for the material, the investigators used the cerebrovascular material to print a model of tubular cerebrovascular blood vessels resembling the blood-brain barrier in a complex one-step process.

“The endothelial cells and pericytes in the bioprinted constructs spontaneously self-assemble into a dual-layered structure, closely mimicking the anatomy of the blood-brain barrier,” wrote the authors.

“Moreover, the mature cerebrovascular tissue shows physiological barrier functions and neuroinflammatory responses, indicating its potential for developing models of neuroinflammation-related pathologies.”

The researchers now want to refine the blood-brain barrier model further to include additional cell types found in the brain such as astrocytes, neurons, and monocytes, to increase its similarity to the in vivo brain environment.

“This study provides a crucial platform for investigating the pathological mechanisms of neuroinflammation and developing novel therapeutic strategies,” said Jang in a press statement.

“We aim to integrate additional cell types… to refine methods for quantifying inflammatory responses and permeability, while also expanding to patient-specific disease models.”



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