One of the main difficulties with primary rat brain endothelial cell (RBEC) cultures is obtaining pure cultures. The variation in purity limits the achievement of in vitro models of the rat blood-brain barrier. As P-glycoprotein expression is known to be much higher in RBECs than in any contaminating cells, we have tested the effect of five P-glycoprotein substrates (vincristine, vinblastine, colchicine, puromycin and doxorubicin) on RBEC cultures, assuming that RBECs would resist the treatment with these toxic compounds whereas contaminating cells would not. Treatment with either 4 lg/mL puromycin for the first 2 days of culture or 3 lg/mL puromycin for the first 3 days showed the best results without causing toxicity to the cells. Transendothelial electrical resistance was significantly increased in cell monolayers treated with puromycin compared with untreated cell monolayers. When cocultured with astrocytes in the presence of cAMP, the puromycin-treated RBEC monolayer showed a highly reduced permeability to sodium fluorescein (down to 0.75 · 10 )6 cm/s) and a high electrical resistance (up to 500 W · cm 2 ). In conclusion, this method of RBEC purification will allow the production of in vitro models of the rat blood-brain barrier for cellular and molecular biology studies as well as pharmacological investigations. Keywords: blood-brain barrier, in vitro model, P-glycoprotein, puromycin, rat brain microvessel endothelium. In the last decade, many efforts have been made to produce reliable in vitro models in order to study the blood-brain barrier (BBB). It is indeed important to better understand the complex cellular and molecular interactions at the interface between blood and brain. The BBB regulates the passage of physiological substances into and out of the CNS and protects it against potentially harmful substances present in the blood. It also prevents the passage of pharmacological substances into the CNS. In order to optimize drug delivery to the CNS, it is important to gain knowledge about the passage of drug candidates through the BBB, especially their effects on the CNS and their toxicity to this barrier (Begley 1996;Tsuji and Tamai 1997). The better we understand BBB regulation, the better we will be able to conceive treatments for CNS pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumours
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