Die Pharmazie is published by IMR Press from Volume 81 Issue 1 (2026). Previous articles were published by another publisher under the CC-BY licence, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement.
Development of an automated 7-day 96-well Caco-2 cell culture model
A. Galkin 1, J. Pakkanen 1, P. Vuorela 2
Affiliations
Article Info
1 Division of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2 Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacy, Åbo Akademi University, Tykistökatu 6 A, Turku, 20520, Finland, Email: pia.vuorela@abo.fi
Abstract
Caco-2 cells are a widely accepted model to predict permeability and absorption of compounds in humans. We built up an automated 96-wellplate Caco-2 permeation model with reduced growth time. Model compounds (metoprolol, ketoprofen, verapamil, naproxen, hydrochlorthiazide), permeability markers (TEER, Lucifer Yellow, D-[1-14C]-mannitol) and confocal microscopy were used to assess the utility of our method on Biomek-FX-automation. The confocal imaging data showed that Caco-2 cells formed monolayers when cultured for 7 days with initial cell density of 2.1 × 105 cells/cm2. P-Glycoprotein was present in Caco-2 cells, localized on the plasma membrane. Permeation of model compounds was comparable to those obtained from traditional 12-wellplate experiments.