Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 7, 2025

An In Vivo Blood-brain Barrier Permeability Assay in Mice Using Fluorescently Labeled Tracers
09:35

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

Published on: February 26, 2018

25.3K

The Role of Heparin and Glycocalyx in Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction

Rui Yang1, Mingming Chen1, Jiayin Zheng1

  • 1Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.

Frontiers in Immunology
|January 7, 2022
PubMed

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) functions as a dynamic boundary that protects the central nervous system from blood and plays an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of the brain. Dysfunction of the BBB is a pathophysiological characteristic of multiple neurologic diseases. Glycocalyx covers the luminal side of vascular endothelial cells(ECs). Damage of glycocalyx leads to disruption of the BBB, while inhibiting glycocalyx degradation maintains BBB integrity. Heparin has been recognized as an anticoagulant and it protects endothelial glycocalyx from destruction. In this review, we summarize the role of glycocalyx in BBB formation and the therapeutic potency of heparin to provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of neurological diseases related to BBB breakdown.

Keywords:
blood-brain barrierdysfunctionendothelial cellglycocalyxheparinneurological disease

More Related Videos

Isolation of Cerebral Capillaries from Fresh Human Brain Tissue06:35

Isolation of Cerebral Capillaries from Fresh Human Brain Tissue

Published on: September 12, 2018

12.9K
Analyzing the Permeability of the Blood-Brain Barrier by Microbial Traversal through Microvascular Endothelial Cells06:26

Analyzing the Permeability of the Blood-Brain Barrier by Microbial Traversal through Microvascular Endothelial Cells

Published on: February 14, 2020

16.3K

Related Concept Videos

The Blood-brain Barrier00:49

The Blood-brain Barrier

Overview
49.6K
Anticoagulant Drugs: Low-Molecular-Weight Heparins01:30

Anticoagulant Drugs: Low-Molecular-Weight Heparins

Hemostasis is a crucial process that prevents excessive blood loss from damaged blood vessels. It involves various mechanisms such as vasoconstriction, platelet adhesion and activation, and fibrin formation. The importance of each mechanism depends on the type of vessel injury. In contrast, thrombosis is the abnormal formation of a blood clot within the blood vessels, leading to potential complications if the clot obstructs blood flow. Thrombosis can be caused by increased coagulability of the...
1.0K
Glycocalyx and its Functions01:14

Glycocalyx and its Functions

The glycocalyx is a carbohydrate-rich, fuzzy-appearing layer on the outer surface of the cell membrane. It is highly hydrophilic, because of this it attracts large amounts of water to the cell's surface. This aids the cell's interaction with the watery environment and also helps it to obtain substances dissolved in the water. It is also important for cell identification, self/non-self determination, and embryonic development and is used in cell-to-cell attachments to form tissues.
6.4K
Physiological Barriers01:25

Physiological Barriers

Physiological barriers are semi-permeable cellular structures restricting drug diffusion into intracellular compartments and tissues. There are six types of physiological barriers: blood endothelial, cell membrane, blood-brain, blood-cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), blood-placenta, and blood-testis 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...
4.3K