Influence of Hydrocortisone on the Mechanical Properties of the Cerebral Endothelium In Vitro

Cerebral endothelial cells accomplish the barrier functions between blood and brain interstitium. Structural features are the tight junctions between adjacent endothelial cells and the formation of marginal folds at the cell-cell contacts. The glucocorticoid hydrocortisone (HC) has been reported to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biophysical journal 2005-12, Vol.89 (6), p.3904-3910
Main Authors: Schrot, Sebastian, Weidenfeller, Christian, Schäffer, Tilman E., Robenek, Horst, Galla, Hans-Joachim
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biophysical Theory and Modeling
Blood-Brain Barrier - drug effects
Blood-Brain Barrier - physiology
Blood-Brain Barrier - ultrastructure
Brain
Brain - drug effects
Brain - physiology
Brain - ultrastructure
Cells, Cultured
Cellular biology
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Elasticity
Endothelial Cells - cytology
Endothelial Cells - physiology
Endothelial Cells - ultrastructure
Gene expression
Hydrocortisone - administration & dosage
Mechanical properties
Mechanotransduction, Cellular - drug effects
Mechanotransduction, Cellular - physiology
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Microscopy
Molecular biology
Proteins
Steroids
Stress, Mechanical
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Summary:Cerebral endothelial cells accomplish the barrier functions between blood and brain interstitium. Structural features are the tight junctions between adjacent endothelial cells and the formation of marginal folds at the cell-cell contacts. The glucocorticoid hydrocortisone (HC) has been reported to enforce the blood-brain-barrier in vitro measurable by an increase of the transendothelial electrical resistance. This study shows the impact of HC on the mechanical and morphological properties of confluent cell layers of brain microvascular endothelial cells. HC induces an increase in height of these marginal folds and a reduction of the intercellular contact surface. These morphological changes are accompanied by changes in cell elasticity. Staining of fibrous actin indicates that HC induces a reorganization of the actin cortex. The quantitative determination of the local elastic properties of cells reveals for the first time an HC-induced increase of the representative Young’s modulus according to cytoskeletal rearrangements. For this study, cells of two different species, porcine brain capillary endothelial cells and murine brain capillary endothelial cells, were used yielding similar results, which clearly demonstrates that the HC effect on the cell elasticity is species independent.
ISSN:0006-3495
1542-0086
DOI:10.1529/biophysj.104.058750