Vascularizing the brain in vitro

Abdellah Aazmi; Hongzhao Zhou; Weikang Lv; Mengfei Yu; Xiaobin Xu; Huayong Yang; Yu Shrike Zhang; Liang Ma

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104110

Vascularizing the brain in vitro

iScience. 2022 Mar 17;25(4):104110. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104110. eCollection 2022 Apr 15.

Authors

Abdellah Aazmi^{1

2}, Hongzhao Zhou^{1

2}, Weikang Lv^{1

2}, Mengfei Yu³, Xiaobin Xu⁴, Huayong Yang^{1

2}, Yu Shrike Zhang⁵, Liang Ma^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
³ The Affiliated Stomatologic Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China.
⁵ Division of Engineering in Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Abstract

The brain is arguably the most fascinating and complex organ in the human body. Recreating the brain in vitro is an ambition restricted by our limited understanding of its structure and interacting elements. One of these interacting parts, the brain microvasculature, is distinguished by a highly selective barrier known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), limiting the transport of substances between the blood and the nervous system. Numerous in vitro models have been used to mimic the BBB and constructed by implementing a variety of microfabrication and microfluidic techniques. However, currently available models still cannot accurately imitate the in vivo characteristics of BBB. In this article, we review recent BBB models by analyzing each parameter affecting the accuracy of these models. Furthermore, we propose an investigation of the synergy between BBB models and neuronal tissue biofabrication, which results in more advanced models, including neurovascular unit microfluidic models and vascularized brain organoid-based models.

Keywords: Biomaterials; Biotechnology; Materials science; Tissue Engineering.

Publication types

Review