Fig. 1: Perfusable 3D-BBB microvascular model recapitulates the BBB structure, cell identities and presents improved barrier properties. | Nature Communications

Fig. 1: Perfusable 3D-BBB microvascular model recapitulates the BBB structure, cell identities and presents improved barrier properties.

From: Plasmodium falciparum egress disrupts endothelial junctions and activates JAK-STAT signaling in a microvascular 3D blood-brain barrier model

Fig. 1

a Representation of the experimental timeline for 3D-BBB microvessel fabrication and culture, including a schematic sketch showing the materials for microvessel fabrication and the cells that compose it: human primary astrocytes, pericytes and brain microvascular endothelial cells. b Schematic depiction of the BBB architecture. c Maximum z-projection images of the 3D-BBB microvessel model and the spatial multicellular organization of endothelial cells stained with VE-cadherin (white), GFP-expressing astrocytes and pericytes labeled with αSMA (pink) (left image) or expressing mCherry (right image). Asterisks indicate astrocyte end feet contacting endothelial cells. Representative images from at least 3 independent experiments with similar results. d 3D reconstruction of a portion of the microfluidic network. e Apparent microvascular permeability to 70 kDa FITC-dextran. Each point represents an ROI from endothelial-only (N = 3) and 3D-BBB (N = 13) microvessels (Two-tailed Mann-Whitney U test). Box plots display the median (line within the box), IQR (box), and range (whiskers). Data are provided as a Source Data file.

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