The Use of Alveolar Epithelial Cells in Biopharmaceutical Research

Effros and Mason showed an apparent inverse relationship between molecular weights and rates of in vivo lung clearance of molecules of different sizes, both in log scales [93], A similar relationship has also been found in 

Other solute transporters (solute carrier protein [SLC]) are also expressed in the alveolus. The mRNA transcripts of glucose transporters, GLUT1, GLUT4, GLUT5 and SGLT1, have been detected in freshly isolated rat ATII cells by 

Vitamin C (VC, L-ascorbic acid) is known to be essential for many enzymatic reactions. Sodium-dependent VC transporters (SVCT), SVCT1 and SVCT2, were recently identified and reported to be localised in the apical cell membrane of AECs in the lung of adult rats. These results suggest that SVCT proteins could transport the reduced form of VC from the airway/alveolar surface liquid into respiratory epithelial cells [106], 

Although there appears to be no significant species differences in absorption rates for small lipophilic drugs, some interspecies differences are noted with water-soluble drugs absorbed from distal airspaces of in vivo mammalian lungs [112], These species differences have not been systematically studied yet. However, some marked differences were reported for protein absorption rates 

Notes All Papp values are expressed as mean (xlO-7 cm/s). The abbreviations of a-to-b and b-to-a denote the apical-to-basolateral and basolateral-to-apical directions, respectively. 

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