The biological barriers existing in the human body separate the blood circulation from the interstitial fluid in tissues. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) isolates the central nervous system from the bloodstream, presenting a dual role: the protection of the human brain against potentially toxic/harmful substances coming from the blood, while providing nutrients to the brain and removing metabolites. In terms of architectural features, the presence of junctional proteins (that restrict the paracellular transport) and the existence of efflux transporters at the BBB are the two major in vivo characteristics that increase the difficulty in creating an ideal in vitro model for drug permeability studies and neurotoxicity assessments. The purpose of this work is to provide an up-to-date literature review on the current in vitro models used for BBB studies, focusing on the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of both primary cultures and immortalized cell lines. An accurate analysis of the more recent and emerging techniques implemented to optimize the in vitro models is also provided, based on the need of recreating as closely as possible the BBB microenvironment. In fact, the acceptance that the BBB phenotype is much more than endothelial cells in a monolayer has led to the shift from single-cell to multicellular models. Thus, in vitro co-culture models have narrowed the gap between recreating as faithfully as possible the human BBB phenotype. This is relevant for permeability and neurotoxicity assays, and for studies related to neurodegenerative diseases. Several studies with these purposes will be also presented and discussed.
Keywords: blood–brain barrier; co-culture models; in vitro; neurodegeneration; neurotoxicity; neurovascular unit.