Investigations with cell co-culture model systems are needed to understand the complex interrelationships between such processes as intestinal absorption, bioavailability and hepatic biotransformation in the animal organism. However, at present, suitable animal co-culture models mimicking the in vivo enterohepatic cooperation of non-transformed intestinal and hepatic cells are not available. The aim of our research is to establish a new porcine cell co-culture model constituted from differentiated intestinal epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) and primary hepatocytes, and to determine the changes in the expression levels of the xenobiotic transforming cytochrome P450 in porcine liver cells, as caused by pro-inflammatory mediator molecules produced by the intestinal epithelial cells, in response to microbial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and reactive oxygen species. The expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and cytochrome P450 iso-enzymes are determined at the level of transcription (qRT-PCR) and translation (ELISA and Western blot analysis). Thirdly, the potential anti-inflammatory activity of total spent culture supernatant of probiotic microbes (Lactobacillus and other bacterium species) and that of their single microbial products (such as, for instance, sodium-n-butyrate) will be investigated in the co-culture model.
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