Intercellular Interactomics of Human Brain Endothelial Cells and Th17 Lymphocytes: A Novel Strategy for Identifying Therapeutic Targets of CNS Inflammation

Figure 2

Schematic representation of the experimental approach used for described studies. Immortalized human brain endothelial cell line, hCMEC/D3 was exposed to various inflammatory cytokines or oxygen-glucose deprivation to identify differentially expressed proteins in response to these stimuli in luminal and abluminal membranes as well as in secreted proteins. Th17 lymphocytes derived from MS patients were exposed in vitro to IL-23 to induce their CNS tropism and to identify proteins regulated by this treatment. Respective databases of regulated proteins in inflammation-primed brain endothelial cells (BEC) and CNS-tropic Th17 lymphocytes were subjected to in sillico interactomics analyses to map putative protein-protein interactions that may contribute to Th17 cell adhesion and transmigration across the blood-brain barrier (BBB).