A multilevel approach to understanding the determinants of maternal harsh parenting: the importance of maternal age and perceived partner support

Determinants of parenting are most often considered using one child per family within a cross-sectional design. In 182 families, the current study included two siblings and sought to predict maternal harsh parenting measured prospectively when each child was age 2 years from child gender, infant temperament, maternal age, maternal educational attainment, maternal depression and anxiety and maternal perceptions of partner support. Multilevel modeling was used to examine between- and within-family variance simultaneously. Mothers reported levels of harsh parenting that were similar towards both children (intraclass correlation = 0.69). Thus, the majority of variance in maternal perceptions of their harsh parenting resided between rather than within families and was accounted for in part by maternal age and maternal perceptions of partner support. Results are discussed in relation to family-wide determinants of harsh parenting, previous literature pertaining to parenting siblings and the potential avenues for future research and practice

3D self-organized human Blood-Brain Barrier in a microfluidic chip

A preclinical blood-brain barrier (BBB) model is important for the study of fundamental transport mechanisms and in accessing the delivery of small molecules and antibodies that target brain. Transwell assays for BBB models are easy to create and use but lack the true 3D anatomy of the brain microvasculature and also often the cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions that are important in ensuring a tight BBB. Here we describe the formation of a BBB that expresses neurovascular membrane transporters, tight junction and extracellular matrix proteins using the co-culture of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cells (iPSC-EC), brain pericytes (PC) and astrocytes (AC) in a microfluidic device. The BBB model recapitulates human brain vascular permeability with values that are lower than conventional in vitro models and are comparable to in vivo measurements in rat brain. This in vitro BBB model can therefore be used to screen for brain-targeting drugs or to study neurovascular functions