Protein Abundance of Clinically Relevant Drug Transporters in the Human Liver and Intestine: A Comparative Analysis in Paired Tissue Specimens

Bioavailability of orally administered drugs is partly determined by function of drug transporters in the liver and intestine. Therefore, we explored adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) and solute carriers family transporters expression (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) and protein abundance (liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)) in human liver and duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon in paired tissue specimens from nine organ donors. The transporter proteins were detected in the liver (permeability-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance protein (MRP)2, MRP3, breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), organic anion-transporting polypeptide (OATP)1B1, OATP1B3, OATP2B1, organic cation transporter (OCT)1, OCT3, organic anion transporter 2, Na+-taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide, monocarboxylate transporter (MCT)1, and multidrug and toxin extrusion 1) and the intestine (P-gp, multidrug-resistance protein (MRP)2, MRP3, MRP4, BCRP, OATP2B1, OCT1, apical sodium-bile acid transporter (only ileum), MCT1, and peptide transporter (PEPT1)). Significantly higher hepatic gene expression and protein abundance of ABCC2/MRP2, SLC22A1/OCT1, and SLCO2B1/OATP2B1 were found, as compared to all intestinal segments. No correlations between hepatic and small intestinal protein levels were observed. These observations provide a description of drug transporters distribution without the impact of interindividual variability bias and may help in construction of superior physiologically based pharmacokinetic and humanized animal models.