Cryopreservation of Brain Endothelial Cells Derived from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Is Enhanced by Rho-Associated Coiled Coil-Containing Kinase Inhibition.

ABSTRACT: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) maintains brain homeostasis but also presents a major obstacle to brain drug delivery. Brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) form the principal barrier and therefore represent the major cellular component of in vitro BBB models. Such models are often used for mechanistic studies of the BBB in health and disease and for drug screening. Recently, human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have emerged as a new source for generating BMEC-like cells for use in in vitro human BBB studies. However, the inability to cryopreserve iPSC-BMECs has impeded implementation of this model by requiring a fresh differentiation to generate cells for each experiment. Cryopreservation of differentiated iPSC-BMECs would have a number of distinct advantages, including enab

SUBMITTER: Wilson HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5175444 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature