Industrial Manufacturing and Systems Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2492:241-249. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2289-6_13.
Capillary vessels of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) regulate the transportation of solutes into the brain and provide defense against the disease-causing pathogens and neurotoxins present in the blood. Paradoxically, this regulation also prevents drug transportation into the brain. These unique characteristics of the BBB cause impediment in the treatment of neurological diseases. The development of preclinical models that mimic the BBB capillary vessel is crucial to investigate the complex transport mechanism. Microfluidics-based in vitro models are now extensively investigated for therapeutic applications due to the ability to create a tunable dynamic extracellular microenvironment. One of the main challenges of creating a BBB-on-a-chip is to recapitulate the tubular capillary structure. This chapter presents two novel fabrication methods for microfluidic devices embedded with tubular micro-channels that resemble the diameter and morphology of capillary vessels. These microfluidic devices can be seeded with cells for physiological and pathological studies to support future drug development.
血脑屏障 (BBB) 的毛细血管调节溶质向大脑的运输，并为血液中致病病原体和神经毒素提供防御。矛盾的是，这种调节也阻止了药物向大脑的运输。BBB 的这些独特特性导致了神经疾病治疗的障碍。开发模拟 BBB 毛细血管的临床前模型对于研究复杂的运输机制至关重要。基于微流控的体外模型由于能够创建可调谐的动态细胞外微环境，因此在治疗应用中得到了广泛的研究。创建 BBB-on-a-chip 的主要挑战之一是再现管状毛细血管结构。本章提出了两种新颖的制造方法，用于制造嵌入管状微通道的微流控器件，这些微通道的直径和形态类似于毛细血管。这些微流控器件可以接种细胞用于生理和病理研究，以支持未来的药物开发。
