| There are few therapeutics developed for central nervous system pathologies because drugs never pass clinical trials due to their incapability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). This motivates the development of in vitro models of the neurovascular unit (NVU) or more commonly the BBB. The goal of this project was to adapt an existing system in the laboratory and to develop corresponding methods for functional evaluation of a novel, silk-based in vitro NVU tissue-model. Extracellular matrix and relevant cell types were seeded into a silk-sponge scaffold with preformed abluminal and luminal compartments. These compartments are separated by an endothelial cell monolayer, serving as the BBB. This was evaluated for relevant material properties and physiological features. The results showed the utility of the scaffold platform while the bioreactor device will need modification. |
