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Updated: Mar 18, 2026

Viability Assays for Cells in Culture
Published on: January 20, 2014
The Relationship between Transport-enhancement Effects and Cell Viability by Capric Acid Sodium Salt, Monocaprin, and
M Shima1, Y Kimura1, S Adachi1
1a Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University.
Abstract:
Using Caco-2 cell monolayers and MTT assay, the relationship between cell viability (a) and transport-enhancement effect of 1,2-dicaproin (C6DG), monocaprin (C10MG), and capric acid sodium salt (C10FANa) was examined. Transport enhancement effect was assessed by apparent permeability (P app) of penicillin V. There was a linear relationship between (P app-aS a) and (1-a) values, where S a was the apparent permeability for the viable cells. The apparent permeability for the damaged cells (S d) was evaluated from the slope of the line. Each of the enhancer compounds gave a different S d value 2.00×10(-4), 0.82×10(-4), and 0.10×10(-4) cm/s for C6DG, C10MG, and C10FANa, respectively, but the value was independent of its concentration for C10MG and C10FANa. C6DG would be the safest enhancer among the three compounds because of its high S d value at the low level of cell damage. S d could be used as a criterion for estimating the safety of enhancers.

