Blood-Brain Barrier hCMEC/D3 Cell Line

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective permeability barrier that separates the circulating blood from the brain extracellular fluid in the central nervous system. The blood–brain barrier is formed by capillary endothelial cells, which are connected by tight junctions with an extremely high electrical resistivity. The blood–brain barrier allows the passage of water, some gases, and lipid soluble molecules by passive diffusion, as well as the selective transport of molecules such as glucose and amino acids that are crucial to neural function. On the other hand, the blood–brain barrier may prevent the entry of lipophilic, potential neurotoxins by way of an active transport mechanism mediated by P-glycoprotein. Astrocytes are necessary to create the blood–brain barrier. The blood–brain barrier (BBB) prevents entry into the brain of most drugs from the blood. The presence of the BBB makes difficult the development of new treatments of brain diseases, or new radiopharmaceuticals for neuroimaging of brain.

The hCMEC/D3 cell line was derived from human temporal lobe microvessels isolated from tissue excised during surgery for control of epilepsy. The primary isolate was enriched in cerebral endothelial cells (CECs). In the first passage, cells were sequentially immortalized by lentiviral vector transduction with the catalytic subunit of human telomerase (hTERT) and SV40 large T antigen, following which CEC were selectively isolated by limited dilution cloning, and clones were extensively characterized for brain endothelial phenotype. This brain microvascular endothelial cell line represents one such model of the human BBB that can be easily grown and is amenable to cellular and molecular studies on pathological and drug transport mechanisms with relevance to the central nervous system (CNS).

Reference:
Couraud PO, et al. (2008) The human brain endothelial cell line hCMEC/D3 as a human blood‐brain barrier model for drug transport studies. Fluids Barriers CNS. 2013 Mar 26;10(1):16.

Endothelial Cells

Research Category
Neuroscience

Research Sub Category
Neurodegenerative Diseases

The hCMEC/D3 BBB cell line has been extensively characterized for brain endothelial phenotype and is a model of human blood-brain barrier (BBB) function.

This product is intended for sale and sold solely for internal non-commercial research use per the terms of the “Restricted Use Agreement” as detailed in the product documentation. For information regarding any other uses, please contact licensing@emdmillipore.com.

• Each vial contains ≥ 1X10^6 viable cells.
• Cells are tested by PCR and are negative for Hepatitis A, B, C, HPV, Herpes and HIV-1 & 2 viruses.
• Cells are negative for mycoplasma contamination.

Blood-Brain Barrier hCMEC/D3 cells should be stored in liquid nitrogen. The cells can be passage for at least 10 passages without significantly affecting the cell marker expression and functionality.

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