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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Using Caco-2 Cells to Study Lipid Transport by the Intestine
Published on: August 20, 2015
Efflux of sphingoid bases by P-glycoprotein in human intestinal Caco-2 cells
Tatsuya Sugawara1, Mikio Kinoshita, Masao Ohnishi
1Division of Food Science, Incorporated Administrative Agency, National Institute of Health and Nutrition, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 102-8471, Japan. sugawara@kais.kyoto-u.ac,jp
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to determine whether sphingoid bases that originated from various dietary sources, such as mammals, plants, and fungi, are substrates for P-glycoprotein in differentiated Caco-2 cells, which are used as a model of intestinal epithelial cells. In Caco-2 cells, the uptake of sphingosine, the most common sphingoid base found in mammals, was significantly higher at physiological temperatures than those of cis/trans-8-sphingenine, trans-4, cis/trans-8-sphingadienine, 9-methyl-trans-4, trans-8-sphingadienine, or sphinganine. Verapamil, a potent P-glycoprotein inhibitor, increased the cellular accumulation of sphingoid bases, except for sphingosine, in a dose-dependent manner. Incubation with 1 microM digoxin for 48 h caused up-regulation of multidrug-resistance (MDR)1 mRNA and decreased the accumulation of sphingoid bases in Caco-2 cells, except for sphingosine. Thus P-glycoprotein probably contributes to the selective absorption of sphingosine from dietary sphingolipids in the digestive tract.
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