Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Catania, V.le A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Int J Pharm. 2012 Jan 17;422(1-2):318-22. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2011.11.019. Epub 2011 Nov 11.
Physical protection of mucosa surface and reduction of inflammatory processes are currently considered the main strategies in the treatment and prevention of mucosal diseases. However, the majority of models used to verify the activity of new mucoprotective agents are based on limiting instrumental assessment or the sacrifice of experimental animals. In this study, for the first time, some in vitro experimental methods using Caco-2 cell line are proposed as predicting in vivo behaviour and action of mucoprotective agents. To this purpose, hyaluronic acid and natural polysaccharides for their bioadhesive activity, hydrocortisone and natural polyphenols as anti-inflammatory agents have been chosen. The obtained results demonstrated that the techniques (Con A/o-pd assay and Franz cell system) of mucoadhesive evaluation on Caco-2 cells are useful to compare the activity of each experimental sample and to assess the adhesion time to the mucosal cell surface. Moreover, the reduction of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in Caco-2 cells can be considered directly correlated to the mucosal anti-inflammatory effect induced by the hydrocortisone and natural polyphenols. In conclusion, the study supported the use of Caco-2 cell as a model to compare and investigate the effect of different active substances on the mucosa and its diseases.
目前，保护黏膜表面和减少炎症过程被认为是治疗和预防黏膜疾病的主要策略。然而，大多数用于验证新型黏膜保护剂活性的模型都是基于限制仪器评估或牺牲实验动物。在这项研究中，首次提出了一些使用 Caco-2 细胞系的体外实验方法，作为预测黏膜保护剂体内行为和作用的方法。为此，选择了透明质酸和天然多糖作为具有生物黏附活性的物质，以及氢化可的松和天然多酚作为抗炎剂。研究结果表明，Caco-2 细胞上的黏膜黏附评估技术（Con A/o-pd 测定法和 Franz 细胞系统）可用于比较每个实验样本的活性，并评估与黏膜细胞表面的黏附时间。此外，Caco-2 细胞中细胞间黏附分子-1（ICAM-1）表达的减少可被认为与氢化可的松和天然多酚诱导的黏膜抗炎作用直接相关。总之，该研究支持使用 Caco-2 细胞作为模型来比较和研究不同活性物质对黏膜及其疾病的影响。
