The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1990-1991

Inflammation of the Central Nervous System: A Proposed Study Using Artificial Blood-Brain Barrier

D. Scott Linthicum, PhD
University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas

Linthicum is establishing an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier using mouse cerebrovascular endothelium plus astrocytes. He will examine interactions of antigen-specific immune cells with the model barrier in the presence or absence of specific antigens. He will then observe migration of these cells by introducing vasoactive amines, their agonists or antagonists. Further study is planned of the genetic control of the barrier using vasoactive amine-affected cells from mice.