Bacterial extracellular vesicles indirectly destabilize a human stem cell–derived blood–brain barrier on-chip through pro-inflammatory stimulation of immune cells

Pathogenic bacterial extracellular vesicles (BEVs) can disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB), leading to neuroinflammation. Prior <i>in vitro</i> studies of this process were performed in simple models that may have lacked important physiological factors. We sought to determine if treatment with <i>Escherichia coli</i>-derived BEVs could directly compromise the integrity of a BBB lab-on-chip model or if an immune component was required. Our device featured isogenic human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived brain microvascular endothelial-like cells (BMECs) and pericytes separated by an ultrathin, porous silicon nitride membrane. BEVs and free lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were capable of causing upregulation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 on the BMEC surfaces, which is important for immune cell recruitment. However, neither BEVs nor LPS at physiological doses caused pronounced loss of BMEC tight junction proteins, nor did they increase barrier permeability to small dye molecules. In contrast, stimulating THP-1 macrophages with BEVs led to increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and conditioned media from the stimulated macrophages disrupted BMEC tight junctions and increased barrier permeability. Our work demonstrates the importance of incorporating an immune component in studies of BEV-mediated disruption of BBB models.