Madin\u2013Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cells are epithelial cells originally derived from the distal tubule of dog kidney. They form confluent monolayers with tight junctions and polarized morphology, making them widely used for permeability measurements in drug discovery. Compared with Caco-2 cells, MDCK monolayers develop more rapidly (3\u20135 days), allowing higher throughput screening.<\/p>
In permeability assays, test compounds are applied to the apical or basolateral chamber of a monolayer grown on filter supports. Apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) are determined from concentration changes across the membrane over time. Bidirectional transport studies identify passive versus active processes, particularly when efflux transporters are overexpressed. Engineered variants such as MDCK-MDR1 or MDCK-BCRP lines stably express human efflux proteins, enabling targeted evaluation of transporter-mediated drug disposition.<\/p>
MDCK assays correlate reasonably with intestinal absorption for passively diffused drugs, but their predictive power is generally lower than that of Caco-2 because of species differences in transporter and enzyme expression. Nonetheless, their rapid growth, robustness, and adaptability make MDCK cells a valuable alternative model for ranking compound permeability, assessing efflux liability, and supporting structure\u2013permeability relationship studies in early development.<\/p>
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