Name: an in vivo blood-brain barrier permeability assay in mice using fluorescently labeled tracers
Uploaded: 2018-02-26T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An In Vivo Blood-brain Barrier Permeability Assay in Mice Using Fluorescently Labeled Tracers at JoVE.com

The authors would like to acknowledge Sphingonet consortium funded by the Leduq foundation for supporting this work. This work was also supported by the Collaborative Research Center &#34;Vascular differentiation and remodeling&#34; (CRC/ Transregio23, Project C1) and by the 7. FP, COFUND, Goethe International Postdoc Programme GO-IN, No. 291776 funding. We further acknowledge Kathleen Sommer for her technical assistance with mice handling and genotyping.

All animals were handled with utmost care minimizing pain or discomfort during the procedure. This procedure follows the animal care guidelines of our institution and has been approved by the local committee (Regierungspraesidium Darmstadt, approval number FK/1044).
A schematic of the work steps for in vivo permeability assay in mice is shown in Figure 1. The details of each step are described below.
1. Animal Handling
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Blood-brain barrier dysfunction is associated with a number of neurological disorders, including primary and secondary brain tumors or stroke. BBB breakdown is often associated with life-threatening CNS edema. The elucidation of the molecular mechanisms that trigger the opening or closure of the BBB is therefore of therapeutic significance in neurological disorders and commonly investigated by researchers. However, methods to investigate BBB permeability in vivo reported in the literature, are often associated w...

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) consists of the microvascular endothelial cells (ECs) supported by closely associated pericytes (PCs), which are ensheathed in the basal lamina, and astrocytes (ACs) that envelop the basement membrane with their end-feet1,2. ECs interact with several cell types that support and regulate the barrier function, primarily ACs and PCs, and also neurons and microglia, all of which together form the neurovascular unit (NVU). The NVU is critical for the function of the BBB, which limits the transport of blood-borne toxins and pathogens from entering the brain. This function is a result of tight-junction molecules such as claudin-5, occludin, zonula occludens-1, which are present between ECs and also due to the action of transporters such as p-glycoprotein (P-gp) that efflux molecules that enter the endothelium back into the vessel lumen1,2,3. The BBB however allows for the transport of essential molecules such as nutrients (glucose, iron, amino acids) by specific transporters expressed on the EC plasma membranes1,2,3. The EC layer is highly polarized with respect to the distribution of the various transporters between the luminal (blood-facing) and abluminal (brain-facing membranes) to allow for the specific and vectorial transport function4,5. While the BBB is protective with respect to tightly regulating the CNS milieu, it is a major challenge for CNS drug delivery in diseases such as Parkinson&#39;s with a functional BBB. Even in neurological diseases with BBB dysfunction, it cannot be assumed that the brain drug delivery is increased particularly as the barrier dysfunction could include damage to the specific transporter targets for example as in Alzheimer&#39;s disease (AD). In AD, several amyloid beta transporters such as LRP1, RAGE, P-gp are known to be dysregulated and hence targeting these transporters might be futile6,7,8. The BBB is impaired in several neurological diseases such as stroke, AD, meningitis, multiple-sclerosis, and in brain tumors9,10,11. Restoring the barrier function is a crucial part of the therapeutic strategy and thus its assessment is critical.
In this work, we have described an objective and quantitative protocol for permeability assay in rodents that we successfully applied to several mouse lines both transgenic and experimental disease models10,12,13,14. The method is based on a simple intraperitoneal injection of fluorescent tracers followed by perfusion of the mice to remove the tracers from the vascular compartment. Brain and other organs are collected post perfusion and permeability assessed by an objective and absolute permeability index based on fluorescence measurements of tissue homogenates in a plate reader. All raw fluorescence values are corrected for the background using tissue homogenates or serum from sham animals that do not receive any tracer. Ample normalizations are included for serum volume, serum fluorescence, and the weight of the tissues, thus yielding permeability index that is absolute and comparable between experiments and tissue types. For ease of comparison between groups, the absolute permeability index values can be readily transformed to ratios as we had performed previously12. Concurrently, stored hemi-brains and kidney could be utilized for tracer visualization by fluorescence microscopy10. The classic fluorescence microscopy could be valuable in obtaining regional difference in permeability albeit cumbersome due to subjective selection of tissue sections and images for a semi-quantitative analysis. The detailed steps are presented in the protocol and notes are added where appropriate. This provides the necessary information for successfully performing the in vivo permeability assay in mice that can be scaled to other small animals. The assay can be applied to many kinds of tracers allowing for the charge and the size based permeability assessment by a combination of tracers with distinct fluorescence spectra.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Tetramethyl Rhodamine (TMR) dextran 3kD</td>
			<td>Thermosfisher</td>
			<td>D3308</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) dextran 3kD</td>
			<td>Thermosfisher</td>
			<td>D3306</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ketamine (Ketavet)</td>
			<td>Zoetis</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Xylazine (Rompun)</td>
			<td>Bayer</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>0.9% Saline</td>
			<td>Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>1X PBS</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>10010-015</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tissue-tek O.C.T compound</td>
			<td>Sakura Finetek</td>
			<td>4583</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>37% Formaldhehyde solution</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>252549-1L</td>
			<td>prepare a 4% solution</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Bovine Serum Albumin, fraction V</td>
			<td>Roth</td>
			<td>8076.3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triton X-100</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>T8787</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>rat anti CD31 antibody, clone MEC 13.3</td>
			<td>BD Pharmingen</td>
			<td>553370</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>goat anti rat alexa 568</td>
			<td>Molecular Probes</td>
			<td>A-11077</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>goat anti rat alexa 488</td>
			<td>Molecular Probes</td>
			<td>A-11006</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DAPI</td>
			<td>Molecular Probes</td>
			<td>D1306</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Aqua polymount</td>
			<td>Polyscience Inc</td>
			<td>18606</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>21-gauge butterfly needle</td>
			<td>BD</td>
			<td>387455</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>serum collection tube</td>
			<td>Sarstedt</td>
			<td>41.1500.005</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>2mL eppendorf tubes</td>
			<td>Sarstedt</td>
			<td>72.695.500</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Kimtech precision wipes tissue wipers</td>
			<td>Kimberley-Clark Professional</td>
			<td>05511</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>384-well black plate</td>
			<td>Greiner</td>
			<td>781086</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>slides superfrost plus</td>
			<td>Thermoscientific</td>
			<td>J1800AMNZ</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PTFE pestle</td>
			<td>Wheaton</td>
			<td>358029</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>electric overhead stirrer</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>VWR VOS 14</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>plate reader</td>
			<td>Tecan</td>
			<td>Infinite M200</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Cryostat</td>
			<td>Microm GmbH</td>
			<td>HM 550</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Nikon C1 Spectral Imaging confocal Laser Scanning Microscope System</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>peristaltic perfusion system</td>
			<td>BVK Ismatec</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>microcentrifuge</td>
			<td>eppendorf</td>
			<td>5415R</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

an in vivo blood-brain barrier permeability assay in mice using fluorescently labeled tracers

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a specialized barrier that protects the brain microenvironment from toxins and pathogens in the circulation and maintains brain homeostasis. The principal sites of the barrier are endothelial cells of the brain capillaries whose barrier function results from tight intercellular junctions and efflux transporters expressed on the plasma membrane. This function is regulated by pericytes and astrocytes that together form the neurovascular unit (NVU). Several neurological diseases such as stroke, Alzheimer&#39;s disease (AD), brain tumors are associated with an impaired BBB function. Assessment of the BBB permeability is therefore crucial in evaluating the severity of the neurological disease and the success of the treatment strategies employed.
We present here a simple yet robust permeability assay that have been successfully applied to several mouse models both, genetic and experimental. The method is highly quantitative and objective in comparison to the tracer fluorescence analysis by microscopy that is commonly applied. In this method, mice are injected intraperitoneally with a mix of aqueous inert fluorescent tracers followed by anesthetizing the mice. Cardiac perfusion of the animals is performed prior to harvesting brain, kidneys or other organs. Organs are homogenized and centrifuged followed by fluorescence measurement from the supernatant. Blood drawn from the cardiac puncture just before perfusion serves for normalization purpose to the vascular compartment. The tissue fluorescence is normalized to the wet weight and serum fluorescence to obtain a quantitative tracer permeability index. For additional confirmation, the contralateral hemi-brain preserved for immunohistochemistry can be utilized for tracer fluorescence visualization purposes.

We have recently shown that angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) gain-of-function (GOF) mice have higher brain vascular permeability than control mice in healthy conditions10. In stroke-induced mice, it was also shows that the GOF mice had bigger infarct sizes and greater permeability than the control littermates. These results show a critical role of Ang-2 in permeability at the BBB. The protocol therefore utilized the GOF mice and compared them to control littermates to descri...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about An In Vivo Blood-brain Barrier Permeability Assay in Mice Using Fluorescently Labeled Tracers at JoVE.com

An In Vivo Blood-brain Barrier Permeability Assay in Mice Using Fluorescently Labeled Tracers

Here we present a mouse brain vascular permeability assay using intraperitoneal injection of fluorescent tracers followed by perfusion that is applicable to animal models of blood-brain barrier dysfunction. One hemi-brain is used for assessing permeability quantitatively and the other for tracer visualization/immunostaining. The procedure takes 5 - 6 h for 10 mice.

An In Vivo Blood-brain Barrier Permeability Assay in Mice Using Fluorescently Labeled Tracers

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a specialized barrier that protects the brain microenvironment from toxins and pathogens in the circulation and maintains ...

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The use of electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in rodents is relevant to sleep research and to the study of a wide range of neurological conditions. ...

Lineage Tracing of Inducible Fluorescently-Labeled Stem Cells in the Adult Mouse Brain

A telomerase reverse transcriptase (Tert) lineage-tracing mouse line was developed to investigate the behavior and fate of adult tissue stem cells, by ...

Transendothelial Resistance Measurement to Assess Cell Barrier Integrity

Barrier Functional Integrity Recording on bEnd.3 Vascular Endothelial Cells via Transendothelial Electrical Resistance Detection

Applications of TEER Detection to Assess Cell Barrier Integrity (Video) | JoVE

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a dynamic physiological structure composed of microvascular endothelial cells, astrocytes, and pericytes. By coordinating ...

A 3D Blood-Brain Barrier Model Derived from Human Pluripotent Stem-Cells

Reconstruction of the Blood-Brain Barrier In Vitro to Model and Therapeutically Target Neurological Disease

A Personalized Approach Towards Investigating Alzheimer's Disease Using an In Vitro Blood-Brain Barrier Model (Video) | JoVE

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a key physiological component of the central nervous system (CNS), maintaining nutrients, clearing waste, and protecting ...