Cellular evaluation of synthesized insulin/transferrin bioconjugates for oral insulin delivery using intelligent complexation hydrogels.

Insulin transport across the epithelial cell layer in the small intestine was studied using insulin/transferrin conjugates with and without the presence of P(MAA-g-EG) microparticles in contact with a co-culture of Caco-2/HT29-MTX cells. The insulin/transferrin conjugate was shown to increase transport relative to pure insulin by a factor of 7, achieving an apparent permeability of 37 x 10(9) cm . s(-1). The presence of P(MAA-g-EG) microparticles increased conjugate transport by a factor of 14 times relative to insulin, achieving an apparent permeability of 72.8 x 10(9) cm . s(-1). The presence of the microparticles in solution was found to improve conjugate transport by nearly 100% with little to no change in cell monolayer integrity.