Abstract

Intestinal permeability is an important prerequisite for drug compounds which show promising pharmacological and therapeutic properties.  Several medicinally useful substances get rejected for not showing sufficient gastrointestinal absorption features. So to optimally characterize a lead compound’s intestinal permeability – it is essential that the investigators employ models which can reliably predict the permeability. Of the various models that were developed over the years – cell culture models have gained in importance because of the ease and rapidity with which the screening of drugs can be performed. However the cell culture models themselves have inherent limitations which if the investigators overlook can lead to unreliable and under or over prediction of permeability. The biochemical and physical properties of cultured cells can vary depending on the cultural and other conditions which entail that the intestinal permeability studies are carried out following standardized protocols and addressing the critical issues involved in employing the cultured cells. The outcomes of the research studies of various investigators are summarized in this review article. The findings of the literature survey and a study of the investigations indicate that permeability studies – are influenced by a number of factors and the studies are to be performed addressing various critical issues. It may be concluded from the various research studies that reliable and reproducible cell lines need to be employed to enable smooth and early regulatory acceptance. The research studies of various investigators suggest that Caco-2 cells possess a variety of advantages and are widely employed in permeability assessment of drugs.