TIGHT JUNCTIONS PROTEINS IN CEREBRAL ENDOTHELIAL CELLS DURING EARLY POSTNATAL DEVELOPMENT
Formation and functional plasticity of the blood-brain barrier is associated with the molecular events that occur in the brain neurovascular unit in the embryonic and early postnatal development. To study the characteristics of barriergenesis under physiological conditions, as well as recovering from perinatal hypoxia and early life stress, we examined the expression of proteins of cerebral endothelial tight junctions (JAM, ZO1, CLDN5) in rats aged 7, 28 and 70 days of postnatal development (P<sub>7</sub>-P<sub>70</sub>). Under physiological conditions, we have found that the number of endothelial cells expressing JAM, ZO1, CLDN5 slightly increases in the cortex, hippocampus and amygdala of the brain in the period from P<sub>7</sub> to P<sub>70</sub>. Perinatal hypoxia significantly increased the number of cells expressing proteins of tight junction proteins (JAM, CLDN5) up to the age P<sub>28</sub>-P<sub>70</sub>, whereas the number of cells expressing ZO1 was reduced in the same period of time. Early life stress led to an imbalance between the number of cells expressing ZO1 proteins and that expressing tight junctions proteins, but these changes were in opposite direction to that observed in perinatal hypoxia.