A type of cell derived from human stem cells that has been widely used for brain research and drug development may have been leading researchers astray for years, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
A type of cell derived from human stem cells that has been widely used for brain research and drug development may have been leading researchers astray for years, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
The cell, known as an induced brain microvascular endothelial cell (iBMEC), was first described by other researchers in 2012, and has been used to model the special lining of capillaries in the brain that is called the “blood-brain barrier.” Many brain diseases, including brain cancers as well as degenerative and genetic disorders, could be much more treatable if researchers could get drugs across this barrier. For that and other reasons, iBMEC-based models of the barrier have been embraced as an important standard tool in brain research.
Read more at Cornell University
Image: Induced brain microvascular endothelial cells (IBMECs), top, cultured in 3D assume an epithelial organoid structure and express the epithelial cell marker EPCAM (purple). When they are reprogrammed by overexpression of ETV2, ERG and FLI1, they lose EPCAM expression, acquire vascular markers VE-Cad (red) and PECAM1 (green) and are able to fulfill the function of endothelial cells - forming blood vessels, shown in bottom image. Image Credit: Raphaël Lis
