Human brain microvascular endothelial cells (hBMECs, passages 3–6) were cultured as we previously described7 (link), 49 (link). In some experiments, cells were treated with empagliflozin (1 μM), adding glucose at 5 or 30 mM, for 48 h. The endothelial permeability assay was performed using fibronectin-coated trans-well filters (Corning Inc., Corning, NY, USA), as we previously reported7 (link), 49 (link), 50 (link).