The Blood-brain barrier

In Biotechnology

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a separation of circulating blood and the brain extracellular fluid (BECF) in the central nervous system (CNS). It occurs along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around thecapillaries that do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects (e.g. bacteria) and large or hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), while allowing the diffusion of small hydrophobic molecules (O2, hormones, CO2). Cells of the barrier actively transport metabolic products such as glucose across the barrier with specific proteins. This barrier also includes a thick basement membrane and astrocytic endfeet.

This “barrier” results from the selectivity of the tight junctions between endothelial cells in CNS vessels that restricts the passage of solutes. At the interface between blood and the brain, endothelial cells are stitched together by these tight junctions, which are composed of smaller subunits, frequently biochemical dimers, that are transmembrane proteins such as occludin, claudins, junctional adhesion molecule (JAM), or ESAM, for example. Each of these transmembrane proteins is anchored into the endothelial cells by another protein complex that includes zo-1 and associated proteins.

The blood–brain barrier is composed of high-density cells restricting passage of substances from the bloodstream much more than endothelial cells in capillaries elsewhere in the body. Astrocyte cell projections called astrocytic feet (also known as “glia limitans”) surround the endothelial cells of the BBB, providing biochemical support to those cells. The BBB is distinct from the quite similar blood – cerebrospinal-fluid barrier, which is a function of the choroidal cells of the choroid plexus, and from the blood–retinal barrier, which can be considered a part of the whole realm of such barriers.

Several areas of the human brain are not “behind” the BBB. These include the circumventricular organs. Example of this include: the roof of the 3rd and 4th ventricles; capillaries in the pineal gland on the roof of the diencephalon; and the pineal gland, which secretes the hormone melatonin “directly into the systemic circulation” as this hormone can pass through the blood–brain barrier.