Blast-induced injury responsive relative gene expression of traumatic brain injury biomarkers in human brain microvascular endothelial cells

[Display omitted] •Acoustic shock tube used to model high and low impact TBI in-vitro.•Injury reduces expression of tight-junction proteins in HBMVECs.•Injury induces alterations in markers of inflammation and neurofunction in HBMVECs.•Gene expression alterations are dependent on post-injury time and injury intensity. Disruption of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a critical component of traumatic brain injury (TBI) progression. However, further research into the mechanism of BBB disruption and its specific role in TBI pathophysiology is necessary. To help make progress in elucidating TBI affected BBB pathophysiology, we report herein relative gene expression of eleven TBI biomarkers and other factors of neuronal function in human brain microvascular cells (HBMVEC), one of the main cell types in the BBB. Our in-vitro blast TBI model employs a custom acoustic shock tube to deliver injuries of varying intensities to HBMVECs in culture. Each of the investigated genes exhibit a significant change in expression as a response to TBI, which is dependent on both the injury intensity and time following the injury. This data suggests that cell signaling of HBMVECs could be essential to understanding the interaction of the BBB and TBI pathophysiology, warranting future investigation.