Transepithelial transport and accumulation of flavone in human intestinal Caco-2 cells

Flavonoids are found in many food items of plant origin. Intake of flavonoids has been linked to the prevention of human diseases including cancer. However, little is known about the intestinal absorption of flavonoids in the cellular level. This study was designed to study the absorption of dietary flavonoids using cultured human intestinal epithelial cell monolayer as a model system and 14C-flavone as a model compound. 14C-flavone at 10 microM was found to move across the cell monolayer rapidly both from the luminal to basolateral direction and from the basolateral to luminal direction. The rate of transport from the luminal to basolateral direction was 5 times of the rate for phenylalanine, an aromatic amino acid. Flavone also accumulated substantially in the cells. Replacing sodium in the transport buffer with potassium did not affect the transport but reducing the incubation temperature significantly decreased the initial rate of transport. The presence of protein in the transport buffer reduced the initial rate of transport to half. Other flavonoids and hydrophobic chemicals at 100 microM had no effects on the transport. Together with the evidence from microscopic observation (Cancer Letts. 110: 41-48, 1996), this study supports that rapid diffusional transport may be the main route for flavonoid absorption. The ability of intestinal cells to accumulate flavone is consistent with the role of flavonoids in colon cancer prevention.