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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Using Caco-2 Cells to Study Lipid Transport by the Intestine
Published on: August 20, 2015
Digestive Stability, micellarization, and uptake of beta-carotene isomers by Caco-2 human intestinal cells
Mario G Ferruzzi1, John L Lumpkin, Steven J Schwartz
1Department of Food Science, Purdue University, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
Abstract:
While isomeric profiles of carotenoids found in food often differ from those in body fluids and tissues, insights about the basis for these differences remain limited. We investigated the digestive stability, relative efficiency of micellarization, and cellular accumulation of trans and cis isomers of beta-carotene (BC) using an in vitro digestion procedure coupled with human intestinal (Caco-2) cells. A meal containing applesauce, corn oil, and either water-soluble beadlets (WSB) or Dunaliella salina (DS) as a BC source was subjected to simulated gastric and small intestinal digestion. BC isomers were stable during digestion, and the efficiency of micellarization of cis-BC isomers exceeded that of all-trans-BC isomers. The cellular profile of carotenoids generally reflected that in micelles generated during digestion, and intracellular isomerization was minimal. These data suggest that cis isomers of BC are preferentially micellarized during digestion and transferred across the brush-border surface of the enterocyte from mixed micelles with similar efficiency as all-trans-BC at the concentrations of the carotenoids utilized in this study.
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