Coumarins permeability in Caco-2 cell model

Abstract

Abstract Objectives The presence of coumarins in human diet, their multiple pharma***ćological properties and occurrence in various herbal remedies represent significant reasons to explore their membrane permeability, as a first event contributing to coumarins oral bioavailability. Thus, we evaluated the permeability and cytotoxicity of 18 coumarins, with different substitution patterns involving OH, OCH3 and CH3 groups. Methods A modified Caco-2 permeability model was used, in which the permeability test is performed with a robotic workstation and cells are grown on 96-well plates for 7 days. Key findings All studied coumarins were highly permeable, with calculated Papp values that varied within 4.1 times 10−5 to 2.1 times 10−4 in apical to basolateral studies and within 1.8 times 10−5 to 7.0 times 10−5 in basolateral to apical studies. The efflux ratio remained in all cases below 1. It was demonstrated that the type and position of substituents contributed more to the permeability than the number of substituents. Conclusions The results allowed us to predict that these coumarins are well absorbed in the gut lumen and efflux is not limiting the absorption. Five coumarins had an influence on the mitochondrial function of Caco-2 cells (1 < 80%, 4 > 120%), according to the WST-1 cytotoxicity test, but this does not seem to affect the permeability of the compounds.