The blood-tissue barriers including blood-retinal barrier form complex tight junctions of capillary endothelial cells and/or epithelial cells. Although these tight barriers prevent the free diffusion of substances between the circulating blood and the neural tissues, blood-tissue barrier efficiently supplies nutrients to the retina and brain and removes endobiotics and xenobiotics from the neural tissues to maintain a constant milieu. We investigate transport mechanism at the blood-tissue barrier, especially blood-retinal barrier to develop strategies aimed at drug deliver to the retina.

Blood-Retinal Barrier Transporters

Publications

• 1. Fujii et al, Impact of P-glycoprotein on blood-retinal barrier permeability: comparison of blood-aqueous humor and blood-brain barrier using mdrla knockout rats, Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 55, 4650-4658 (2014)
• 2. Kubo et al, Involvement of carrier-mediated transport in the retinal uptake of clonidine at the inner blood-retinal barrier, Mol. Pharm., 11, 3747-3753 (2014).
• 3. Tega et al, Involvement of the H+/organic cation antiporter in nicotine transport in rat liver, Drug Metab. Dispos., 43, 89-92 (2015).
• 4. Kubo et al, Impact of cationic amino acid transporter 1 on blood-retinal barrier transport of L-ornithine, Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., 56, 5925-5932 (2015).
• 5. Fujii et al, Functional characterization of carrier-mediated transport of pravastatin across the blood-retinal barrier in rats, Drug Metab. Dispos., 43, 1956-1959 (2015).