Biodegradable nanoparticles containing salmon calcitonin (sCT) were formulated using protein-fatty acid complexes, and their in vitro transport against a Caco-2 cell monolayer and the extent of in vivo oral uptake were assessed. Positively charged sCT was hydrophobically ion paired to form physical complexes with fatty acid, phospholipid, and surfactant. Among the complexes, sodium oleate was u...

The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms of lead (Pb) uptake by human intestinal cells and to compare the intestinal transport and relative lead-chelating ability of two diastereoisomeric forms (i.e., meso and racemic) of 2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA). The model used was the human adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell monolayer. The Caco-2 cells were cultured in flasks for examinati...

There is still relatively limited information about mechanisms of gene expression in enterocytes and mechanisms by which gene expression is regulated during enterocyte differentiation. Using the human intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2, which spontaneously differentiates from a cryptlike to a villouslike enterocyte, we have previously shown that there is a marked increase in transcription o...

The feasibility of making calcium carbonate-calcium phosphate (CaCO(3)-CaP) mixed cements, comprising at least 40% (w/w) CaCO(3) in the dry powder ingredients, has been demonstrated. Several original cement compositions were obtained by mixing metastable crystalline CaCO(3) phases with metastable amorphous or crystalline CaP powders in aqueous medium. The cements set within at most 1 h at 37 de...

Most gut bacteria are obligate anaerobes and are important for human health. However, little mechanistic insight is available on the health benefits of specific anaerobic gut bacteria. A main obstacle in generating such knowledge is the lack of simple and robust coculturing methods for anaerobic bacteria and oxygen-requiring human cells. Here, we describe the development of a coculture system f...

The Caco-2 assay has achieved wide popularity among pharmaceutical companies in the past two decades as an in vitro method for estimation of in vivo oral bioavailability of pharmaceutical compounds during preclinical characterization. Despite its popularity, this assay suffers from a severe underprediction of the transport of drugs which are absorbed paracellularly, that is, which pass through ...

During the differentiation of human enterocytes, the secretion of apolipoprotein B is switched from the apoB-100 form seen almost exclusively in fetal cells to the apoB-48 form seen almost exclusively in adult cells. This switch is accomplished by the post-transcriptional editing of the messenger RNA for apoB-100. We report that a similar switch occurs during the differentiation of the human co...

The specific mechanisms controlling intestinal cell differentiation remain largely undefined. The retinoblastoma (Rb) proteins (pRb, p130, and p107) appear crucial to the terminal differentiation process of certain cells through their association and repression of E2F transcription factors. We have examined the expression of pRb-related proteins p130 and p107 as well as the regulation of E2F du...

Cytotoxicity of Adriamycin on human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines was investigated. Concentrations of Adriamycin producing 50% inhibition were very similar in HT29, Sw480, Sw620, and Sw1116 cells, whereas Caco-2 cells were relatively insensitive. As compared to the Sw1116 cell line, Caco-2 cells were also insensitive to mitoxantrone. Sensitivity to cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, or ethacrynic aci...

Mucinous adenocarcinoma (MAC) represents a distinct histopathological entity of colorectal cancer (CRC), which is associated with disease progression and poor prognosis. Here, we found that expression levels of miR-205 and miR-373 were specifically upregulated only in patients with mucinous colon cancers, but not in CRC that lack mucinous components. To investigate the effects of miR-205 and mi...