Putrescine transport in differentiated Caco-2 cells
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Updated: Oct 12, 2026

Using Caco-2 Cells to Study Lipid Transport by the Intestine
Published on: August 20, 2015
A M Barlier1, R Benamouzig, D Tomé
1Unité INRA de Nutrition Humaine et de Physiologie Intestinale, Faculté des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques, Paris.
Objective And Methods:
To evaluate the putative importance of digestive luminal polyamines, we investigated the role of oxidation in putrescine uptake and transport in differentiated Caco-2 cells grown in monolayer.
Results:
Our results confirm a putrescine uptake system located both at the apical and basolateral cell membrane. Putrescine is efficiently transported and excreted in the apical-to-basolateral direction.
Conclusion:
These results suggest (i) a diamine oxidase controlled catabolic oxidative excreting pathway and (ii) a paracellular route for putrescine transport. This catabolic route seems to proceed by converting putrescine into gamma-aminobutyraldehyde which is then rapidly excreted from the cell at the basolateral membrane since no gamma-aminobutryraldehyde was detected in the cell. This putative basolateral excreting mechanism is inhibited in the presence of the diamine oxidase inhibitor, aminoguanidine.
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