Intestinal in vitro cell culture models and their potential to study the effect of food components on intestinal...

Cell cultures are widely used in pharmaceutical, medical, food/nutrition and biological sciences. In food and nutrition science, intestinal cell culture models of human origin are attracting increasing interest but are still rarely used in investigations of the effects of bioactive food compounds on intestinal inflammation. However, such in vitro models would, among other benefits, limit the use of in vivo models and could provide new molecular data.This review is an overview of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) intestinal cell culture models and their potential use in gut inflammation studies. After describing the features of healthy and inflamed intestinal barriers, we describe the main intestinal cell lines (Caco2, HT29, T84) and their use in investigations of the transport and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory potential of some bioactive food compounds. Finally, different co-culture models of gut inflammation, in association with immune cells (PBMC, THP1 and RAW 264.7 cell lines) in both 2D and 3D models are presented. 3D models called organs-on-chips or biochips are the most recent and very promising approach made possible by bioengineering and biotechnological improvements and more accurately mimic the gut microenvironment.