THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRANSPORT-ENHANCEMENT EFFECTS AND CELL VIABILITY BY CAPRIC ACID SODIUM-SALT, MONOCAPRIN, AND DICAPROIN

Using Caco-2 cell monolayers and MTT assay, the relationship between c ell viability (a) and transport-enhancement effect of 1,2-dicaproin (C 6DG), monocaprin (C10MG), and capric acid sodium salt (C10FANa) was ex amined, Transport enhancement effect was assessed by apparent permeabi lity (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 permeabili ty for the viable cells. The apparent permeability for the damaged cel ls (Sd) was evaluated from the slope of the line, Each of the enhancer compounds gave a different S-d value 2.00 x 10(-4), 0.82 x 10(-4), an d 0.10 x 10(-4)cm/s for C6DG, C10MG, and C10FANa, respectively, but th e value was independent of its concentration for C10MG and C10FANa. C6 DG would be the safest enhancer among the three compounds because of i ts high Sd value at the low level of cell damage. Sd could be used as a criterion for estimating the safety of enhancers.