An In Vitro Human Blood-Brain Barrier Model to Study Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis

Studying the mechanisms of breast cancer cells in brain metastases is challenging, considering the high specificity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with whom breast cancer cells have to interact and cross in order to reach the brain parenchyma. While numerous in vitro BBB models are available, the setting of the model and phenotype of the endothelial cells (ECs) of the BBB model are essential to obtain relevant results.In this chapter, we describe a method to establish a human in vitro BBB model to study adhesion of breast cancer cells and the adaptation of the method for trans-endothelial migration assay keeping the appropriate BBB phenotype of the ECs.