An impaired alveolar-capillary barrier in vitro : effect of proinflammatory cytokines and consequences on nanocarrier interaction.

The alveolar region of the lung is an important target for drug and gene delivery approaches. Treatment with drugs is often necessary under pathophysiological conditions, in which there is acute inflammation of the target organ. Therefore, in vitro models of the alveolar-capillary barrier, which mimic inflammatory conditions in the alveolar region, would be useful to analyse and predict effects of novel drugs on healthy or inflamed tissues. The epithelial cell line H441 was cultivated with primary isolated human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMECs) or the endothelial cell line ISO-HAS-1 on opposite sides of a permeable filter support under physiological and inflammatory condi…