Human airways enable exchange of gasses and act as protective interface against. In addition, they also represent an interesting site for local or systemic drug delivery due to large absorptive surface area, leaky epithelium, and non-invasive route of application. Since our knowledge about airways as a potential drug delivery route is not as extensive as that of the gastrointestinal tract, we need to thoroughly characterize them first. Cell models, such as Calu-3 cells, are efficient and affordable systems, with which we can learn a lot about drug permeability through lung epithelium. The way of cultivating cells affects their growth and structure of cell monolayer. We cultivated cells in nutrient-rich medium with minimal serum addition, which normally results in lower intervariability and easier comparison of permeability coefficients among all cell monolayers. Epithelial models were cultivated three weeks on two different conditions – liquid-liquid and air-liquid interface, the latter being specific for lung cell cultures. During cultivation cells were monitored under invert microscope to check, whether cells outgrew whole membrane surface and whether they were damaged. Measurements of transepithelial electrical resistance and permeability of Lucifer Yellow were used to evaluate the integrity of the cell layer. Permeability was measured in apical to basolateral and basolateral to apical side. Permeability coefficients of FITC-dextrans decreased with higher molecular masses. This trend was also observed by other authors. Permeability of FITC-dextrans was significantly lower than the permeability of other tested compounds, which confirmed the suitable integrity of Calu-3 monolayer. Permeability coefficients of small lipophilic molecules increased with higher logP values. Measuring of permeability in both directions, apical to basolateral and basolateral to apical, was important in the determination of active transport. The presence and activity of transporter P-glycoprotein were confirmed with Rhodamine 123 as a model substrate and its selective inhibitors. The presence of transporter PEPT2 was not confirmed with oxacillin. We concluded that when solutions are being tested both culturing conditions are appropriate for permeability measurements.
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