A TEM protocol for quality assurance of in vitro cellular barrier models and its application to the assessment of nanoparticle transport mechanisms across barriers

We report here a protocol to characterise and monitor the quality of in vitro human cellular barrier models using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), which can be applied for transport assays, mechanistic studies and screening of drug/compound (including nanoparticle) penetration across such biological barriers. Data from two examples of biological barriers are given, namely the hCMEC/D3 endothelial blood-brain barrier model, and the Caco-2...