The choroid plexus is central to normal brain function by secreting cerebrospinal fluid and dynamically regulating its composition throughout development and homoeostasis. Much of our current understanding of this region of the brain comes from studies in animal models. These fundamental studies have shed light on choroid plexus mechanisms of secretion, barrier function and homoeostatic regulation. However, how these specific mechanisms are regulated in the human choroid plexus is much less understood, due to ethical and technical limitations. A number of recent breakthroughs have enabled a new range of techniques and tools for functional characterisation of choroid plexus development and physiology. With the advance of new technologies such as in vivo imaging, single-cell transcriptomics and in vitro three-dimensional cultures we are now able to address a number of outstanding questions in choroid plexus biology. Here, we discuss some of these recent breakthroughs and we focus in particular on how in vitro models can be a powerful tool to study human cerebrospinal fluid secretion and barrier function.

脉络丛通过分泌脑脊液并在整个发育和稳态过程中动态调节其组成，是正常大脑功能的中心。我们目前对大脑这个区域的大部分理解来自动物模型的研究。这些基础研究揭示了脉络丛分泌、屏障功能和稳态调节的机制。然而，由于伦理和技术限制，这些特定机制如何在人类脉络丛中受到调节的了解却少得多。最近的一些突破为脉络丛发育和生理学的功能表征提供了一系列新的技术和工具。随着体内成像、单细胞转录组学和体外三维培养我们现在能够解决脉络丛生物学中的一些突出问题。在这里，我们讨论了其中一些最近的突破，我们特别关注体外模型如何成为研究人类脑脊液分泌和屏障功能的有力工具。