Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026

Isolation of Primary Murine Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells
Published on: November 14, 2014
Paracellular barrier and tight junction protein expression in the immortalized brain endothelial cell lines bEND.3,
Takuya Watanabe1, Shinya Dohgu, Fuyuko Takata
1Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, 8–19–1 Nanakuma, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka 814–0180, Japan..
Abstract:
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is formed by brain endothelial cells. Many immortalized brain endothelial cell lines have been established; these have been used as in vitro BBB models. The aim of the present study was to assess the paracellular barrier properties of the immortalized mouse brain endothelial cell lines bEND.3, bEND.5 cells, and mouse brain endothelial cell 4 (MBEC4), and those of the primary mouse brain endothelial cells pMBECs. bEND.3 cells showed low permeability to sodium fluorescein and obvious staining of tight junction proteins (claudin-5, occludin and ZO-1) similar to pMBECs; these barrier properties of MBEC4 and bEND.5 cells were low. In addition, bEND.3 cells expressed the highest level of claudin-5 among all cells. These results suggest that bEND.3 cells are a convenient and useful model for evaluating BBB function, especially the paracellular barrier.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
The Blood-brain Barrier
Tight Junctions
Physiological Barriers
The blood endothelial barrier is the most porous of these. It allows all small ionized, un-ionized, and lipophilic molecules to pass through the endothelial lining into the interstitial space...

