Development of a triculture based system for improved benefit/risk assessment in pharmacology and human food

Caco-2 cells are widely used for both mechanistic studies in molecular cell biology as well as for studies aiming at estimating, in vitro, the bioavailability of drug candidates, xenobiotics, food compounds .... This results largely from the spontaneous differentiation of this human colon adenocarcinoma line into enterocytes-like cells in classical culture conditions, as well as from the use of bicameral culture inserts including porosity calibrated filters. Although Caco-2 cells represent the current “golden standard” of in vitro models of the human intestinal barrier, there is a trend to develop new systems mimicking more closely the intestinal epithelium for pharmaceutical and toxicological studies. In particular, goblet cells may bring a main constituent of the intestinal barrier as secreting mucus and contribute to the permeability met in vivo. In addition, gut associated M cells offer a putative way for oral delivery of nanoencapsulated therapeutic peptides and mucosal vaccines.