Enterocyte cells

The barriers confronting oral delivery of a drug molecule are summarized in Fig. 13.1. During the absorption process, the drug must cross the enterocyte cell apical... 

During oral drag absorption, metabolism can occur in the enterocyte cells that line the lumen of the intestine and in the liver before a drug enters the systemic circulation. Loss of drug in either of those locations constitutes first pass elimination . This first-pass effect can be observed for any type of extravascular delivery (nasal, pulmonary, rectal, vaginal, etc.). The magnitude of the first-pass elimination can be quite different in different tissues. However, the most common site for first-pass metabolism is the gut and liver. Once a drug enters the systemic circulation, most of its metabolic elimination occurs in the liver. Consequently, much of the literature on metabolism centers on hepatic metabolism. 

Lactotransferrin receptors. The existence of a lactotransferrin receptor was first demonstrated by Van Snick and Masson in 1976 [191] at the surface of mouse peritoneal macrophages and lymphocytes. Since this discovery, the presence of lactotransferrin receptors has been demonstrated at the surface of various cells (for reviews, see refs. [156,158,192,193]) rabbit [48], mouse [165,166], monkey [167] and human [168] enterocytes human HT29 and Caco-2 enterocyte cell lines [194] human monocytes (reviewed in ref. [195]), human alveolar macrophages [196], human neutrophils [195,197], human resting lymphocytes [197], human activated lymphocytes [189], human Jurkat T cell line [190], human epithelial mammary cell line [198], human platelets [199,200] and megakaryocytes [201], hepatocytes [202,203] and in bacteria (for a review see refs. [204,205]). 

The main absorbed product of phospholipid digestion is monoacyl-phosphatidylcholine (lysophosphatidylcholine). A fatty acid is re-esterified to position 1 to form phosphatidylcholine by an acyl transferase located in the villus tips of the intestinal brush border. The function of this phospholipid will be to stabilize the triacylglycerol-rich particles, or chylomicrons, exported from the cell as described later. It is thought that the phosphatidylcholine used for the synthesis and repair of membranes in the enterocytes (cells with a rapid turnover) is synthesized by the classical CDP-choline pathway (section 7.1) in cells at the villus crypts. 

The paracellular route is probably less significant in the transport of nanospheres as compared to the transcellular route Tlie tight junctions in between the cells may not allow nanospheres to cross the intestinal epithelial barrier via paracellular route. The transcellular route could allow a restricted passage of the nanospheres across the intestinal mucosal layer because of their moderate size range. In a tissue culture model using Caco-2 (enterocytes) cell monolayers, we have demonstrated transport of PLGA nanospheres across the cells. 

Food vitamin B 2 appears to bind to a saUvary transport protein referred to as the R-protein, R-binder, or haptocorrin. In the stomach, R-protein and the intrinsic factor competitively bind the vitamin. Release from the R-protein occurs in the small intestine by the action of pancreatic proteases, leading to specific binding to the intrinsic factor. The resultant complex is transported to the ileum where it is bound to a cell surface receptor and enters the intestinal cell. The vitamin is then freed from the intrinsic factor and bound to transcobalamin II in the enterocyte. The resulting complex enters the portal circulation. 

Figure 5. Diagrammatic representation of the cytoskeleton in the apical region of the intestinal epithelial cell (enterocyte). (This diagram is from data previously published for example, see Mooseker, 1985.)...

Bundles of parallel actin filaments with uniform polarity. The microvilli of intestinal epithelial cells (enterocytes) are packed with actin filaments that are attached to the overlying plasma membrane through a complex composed of a 110-kD protein and calmodulin. The actin filaments are attached to each other through fimbrin (68 kD) and villin (95 kD). The actin bundles that emerge out of the roots of microvilli disperse horizontally to form a filamentous complex, the terminal web, in which several cytoskeletal proteins, spectrin (fodrin), myosin, actinin, and tropomyosin are present. Actin in the terminal web also forms a peripheral ring, which is associated with the plasma membrane on the lateral surfaces of the enterocyte (see Figure 5, p. 24). 

In culture, the human colon carcinoma cell hne Caco-2 spontaneously differentiates at confluency into polarized cells with enterocyte-like characteristics. The principle of this approach consists of following the passage of the compound of interest from the apical or lumen-like sides to the basolateral or lymph-hke sides of Caco-2 cells, thus following the absorption of the compound per se. One obhgate step for fat-soluble nutrients such as carotenoids to cross the intestinal barrier is their incorporation into CMs assembled in the enterocytes. Under normal cell culture conditions, Caco-2 cells are unable to form CMs. When supplemented with taurocholate and oleic acid, Caco-2 cells were reported to assemble and secrete CMs. ... 

In this in vitro system, the presence of serum in cell culture medium is not necessary, but the type of transwell is important (the total amount of H-triglycerides secreted was two-fold higher when using 3 pm versus 1 pm pore size transwells), and oleic acid supplementation is required for the formation and secretion of CMs as well as the transport of 3-carotene through Caco-2 cells. Finally, the presence of Tween 40 does not affect CM synthesis and secretion in this in vitro cell culture system. Thus, CMs secreted by Caco-2 cells were characterized as particles rich in newly synthesized H-triglycerides (90% of total secreted) containing apolipoprotein B (30% of total secreted) and H-phospholipids (20% of total secreted) and with an average diameter of 60 nm. These characteristics are close to those of CMs secreted in vivo by enterocytes. ... 

Production of Mucosal Damage 2.3.1.2.1 Cell culture Stimulated neutrophils are known to be cytotoxic to cells in vitro (Dull et al., 1987 Dallegri et al., 1990 Grisham et al., 1990b). Several in vitro systems have been used to demonstrate oxidative damage to intestinal cells. Xanthine/XO increased Cr release and decreased [ H]thymidine uptake by IEC-18 small intestinal epithelial cell monolayers in a dose-dependent manner (Ma et al., 1991). Rat enterocytes show decreased trypan blue exclusion and increased protein release when incubated with neutrophils stimulated... 

Cell culture Damage to small intestinal epithelial cells by XO can be prevented by SOD and desferrioxamine (Ma et al., 1991), whilst that to rat enterocytes, CaCo cells or rabbit colonic epithelial cells by XO can be decreased by catalase (Baker and Baker, 1990 Baker and Campbell, 1991 Kawabe etal., 1992). 

The third mucosal layer is that lining the entire length of the small intestine and which represents a continuous sheet of epithelial cells. These epithelial cells (or enterocytes) are columnar in shape, and the luminal cell membrane, upon which the microvilli reside, is called the apical cell membrane. Opposite this membrane is the basal (or basolateral) plasma membrane, which is separated from the lamina propria by a basement membrane. A sketch of this cell is shown in Fig. 5. The primary function of the villi is absorption. 

Precellular solute ionization dictates membrane permeability dependence on mucosal pH. Therefore, lumenal or cellular events that affect mucosal microclimate pH may alter the membrane transport of ionizable solutes. The mucosal microclimate pH is defined by a region in the neighborhood of the mucosal membrane in which pH is lower than in the lumenal fluid. This is the result of proton secretion by the enterocytes, for which outward diffusion is slowed by intestinal mucus. (In fact, mucosal secretion of any ion coupled with mucus-restricted diffusion will provide an ionic microclimate.) Important differences in solute transport between experimental systems may be due to differences in intestinal ions and mucus secretion. It might be anticipated that microclimate pH effects would be less pronounced in epithelial cell culture (devoid of goblet cells) transport studies than in whole intestinal tissue. 

Solute uptake can also be evaluated in isolated cell suspensions, cell mono-layers, and enterocyte membrane vesicles. In these preparations, uptake is normalized by enzyme activity and/or protein concentration. While the isolation of cells in suspension preparations is an experimentally easy procedure, disruption of cell monolayers causes dedifferentiation and mucosal-to-serosal polarity is lost. While cell monolayers from culture have become a popular drug absorption screening tool, differences in drug metabolism and carrier-mediated absorption [70], export, and paracellular transport may be cell-type- and condition-depen-dent. 

The Caco-2 cell line was isolated from a human colon carcinoma, and has been characterized as one of the best in vitro models of intestinal epithelium. Indeed, in contrast to other intestinal cell lines, Caco-2 cells are able to constitute a homogenous monolayer and to spontaneously differentiate into polarized cells, highly similar to human mature enterocytes, after approximately 2 weeks of culture. Furthermore, the Caco-2 cells present microvillosities at the apical side and have a high transmembrane resistivity, which confirms the fact that the cells are confluent and link to one another via gap junctions. Finally, they can absorb different compounds, express many enzymes involved in intestinal metabolic pathways (Pinto et al. 1983, Musto et al. 1995, Salvini et al. 2002), and give reproducible in vitro results consistent with results obtained in in vivo studies (Artursson and Karlsson 1991). 

In summary, Caco-2 cells studies strongly suggest that carotenoids interact with each other at the level of cellular uptake by the enterocyte. This phenomenon has been explained by the fact that the uptake of several carotenoids involves, at least in part, the same intestinal membrane transporter the scavenger receptor class B type ISR-BI (Reboul et al. 2005, van Bennekum et al. 2005, Moussa et al. 2008). 

Pinto, M. et al. (1983). Enterocyte-like differentiation an polarizationof the human colon carcinoma cell line Caco-2 in culture. Biol. Cell 47 323-330. 

It has been known for some time that the enteric nervous system does not simply regulate smooth muscle contraction, but is intimately involved in the control of transport processes in enterocytes. Nerve fibres in the mucosa terminate subjacent to the basement membrane of epithelial and entero-endocrine cells, on which muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs)... 

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