Zinc status influences zinc transport by porcine brain capillary endothelial cells.

Brain capillary endothelial cells (BCEC) were cultured as an in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and manipulated to investigate how the BBB responds to changes in zinc status. BCEC were grown in minimum essential medium (MEM) with 2% fetal bovine serum and 13% platelet-poor horse serum. A moderate zinc deficiency was imposed by growing the cells in medium containing serums that had previously been dialyzed against EDTA to remove endogenous labile zinc.