Introduction to the Blood-Brain Barrier: Methodology, Biology and Pathology

Cambridge University Press, 8/28/1998
EAN 9780521581240, ISBN10: 0521581249

Hardcover, 502 pages, 24.9 x 19.3 x 2.8 cm
Language: English

The blood-brain barrier serves to protect the brain from toxic substances whilst simultaneously allowing access to essential nutrients and chemical signals. At the interface between brain and body, knowledge of the blood-brain barrier forms an essential component in the complete understanding of a large proportion of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, it seems that ignorance of both the biology of this important membrane and the methodology suitable for its investigation still remains an impediment to progress in many fields, including, for example, the development of new and efficacious neuropharmaceuticals, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, cerebral AIDS and brain tumours. This introduction for both researchers and clinicians across the medical sciences is intended to aid both those beginning work directly in this area and those wishing simply to be better informed when interpreting information where the blood-brain barrier may be involved. Advances in both methodology and biology are detailed in 50 chapters from international authorities.

List of contributors
1. Blood-brain barrier methodology and biology
Part I. Methodology
2. The carotid artery single injection technique
3. Development of the Brain Efflux Index (BEI) method and its application to the blood-brain barrier efflux transport study
4. In situ brain perfusion
5. Intravenous injection/pharmacokinetics
6. Isolated brain capillaries
an in vitro model of blood-brain barrier research
7. Isolation and behavior of plasma membrane vesicles made from cerebral capillary endothelial cells
8. Patch clamp technique with isolated brain microvessel membranes
9. Tissue culture of brain endothelial cells - induction of blood-brain barrier properties by brain factors
10. Brain microvessel endothelial cell culture systems
11. Intracerebral microdialysis
12. Blood-brain barrier permeability measured with histochemistry
13. Measuring local cerebral capillary permeability-surface area products by quantitative autoradiography
14. Measurement of blood-brain barrier permeability in humans using indicator diffusion
15. Measurement of blood-brain barrier permeability in humans with positron emission tomography
16. Magnetic resonance imaging of blood-brain barrier permeability
17. Molecular biology of brain capillaries
Part II. Transport Biology
18. Biology of the blood-brain glucose transporter
19. Glucose transporters in mammalian brain development
20. Blood-brain barrier amino acid transport
21. P-glycoprotein, a guardian of the brain
22. Blood-brain barrier ion transport
23. Ion channels in endothelial cells
24. Interactions of lipoproteins with the blood-brain barrier
25. Fatty acid and lipid intermediate transport
26. Blood-brain barrier transport of drugs
Part III. General Aspects of CNS Transport
27. The blood-CSF barrier and the choroid plexus
28. Arachnoid membrane, subarachnoid CSF and pia-glia
29. Circumventricular organs of the brain
30. Transport in the developing brain
Part IV. Signal Transduction/Biochemical Aspects
31. Regulation of brain endothelial cell tight junction permeability
32. Chemotherapy and chemosensitization
33. Lipid composition of brain microvessels
34. Brain microvessel antigens
35. Molecular dissection of tight junctions
occludin and ZO-1
36. Phosphatidylinositol pathways
37. Nitric oxide and endothelin at the blood-brain barrier
38. Role of intracellular calcium in regulation of brain endothelial permeability
39. Cytokines and the blood-brain barrier
40. Blood-brain barrier and monoamines, revisited
Part V. Pathophysiology in Disease States
41. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy
42. Brain microvasculature in multiple sclerosis
43. Hemostasis and the blood-brain barrier
44. Microvascular pathology in cerebrovascular ischemia
45. HIV infection and the blood-brain barrier
46. Hypertension
47. The blood-brain barrier in brain tumours
48. The pathophysiology of blood-brain barrier dysfunction due to traumatic brain injury
49. Cerebral malaria and the brain microvasculature
50. Molecular basis of tissue tropism of bacterial meningitis.