Figure 3

The blood–brain barrier model used to test the effect of pericytes on BBB permeability. A- Time course of blood–brain barrier differentiation and interaction with pericytes. B- Relative permeability of endothelial monolayers to lucifer yellow after 16 days of culture with different cell types. The monolayers were first cultured with glial cells for 12 days and then cultured for 4 days (i) alone ("soloculture"), (ii) with glial cells (" + glial cells"), (iii) with bovine pericytes (" + bovine pericytes") and (iv) with porcine NN pericytes (" + NN pericytes"). The results represent the mean ± s.e.m of 3 independent experiments. For statistical purposes, a one-way analysis of variance was followed by a Tukey test (p < 0.05) with n = 3. The reference permeability coefficient value was 0.51 × 10^-3 cm/min, corresponding to the coculture condition (+ glial cells). N.S.: non-significant.