A blood brain tumour barrier model for studies on drug delivery

This study uses a Transwell model to establish different blood brain tumour barrier models. One two layer model consisted of hCMEC/D3, human brain endothelial cells, and human brain tumour cells, either DAOY or VC312R tumour cell lines, where each tumour type was separately co-cultured with the endothelial cells. Also, a triple co-culture model of human brain endothelial cells, rat brain slice, and tumour aggregate was created to mimic the in-vivo brain tumour.These models were characterised, and the effect of the growth of different brain tumour cell types alongside the brain endothelial cells was determined, in terms of detailed cell morphology, permeability coefficient and effect on zonula occludens (ZO-1) protein. Moreover, two types of lipid carriers were used, namely plain liposome and targeted liposome; the latter was conjugated with antibody against Transferin receptor. These lipid carriers were studied to compare uptake and permeability in the different cell types constituting these models.