PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - JH Tao-Cheng AU - Z Nagy AU - MW Brightman TI - Tight junctions of brain endothelium in vitro are enhanced by astroglia AID - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.07-10-03293.1987 DP - 1987 Oct 01 TA - The Journal of Neuroscience PG - 3293--3299 VI - 7 IP - 10 4099 - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/7/10/3293.short 4100 - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/7/10/3293.full SO - J. Neurosci.1987 Oct 01; 7 AB - The belts of endothelial tight junctions, which impede diffusion between blood and brain, were reduced to fragmentary, small junctions in subcultured brain endothelium. When cocultured with the capillaries' nearest neighbor, the astrocytes, these endothelial tight junctions were enhanced in length, width, and complexity, as seen by en face views of the cell membranes with freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Gap junctions, common in brain endothelium in vitro but absent in mature brain capillaries in vivo, were markedly diminished in area from among the enhanced tight junctions of the cocultures. Thus, astrocytes in vitro play a role in the formation, extent, and configuration of the junctional complexes in brain endothelium, whose diffusion barrier may likewise be influenced by astrocytes in vivo.