TABLE 4

Advantages and limitations of current intestinal in vitro culture systems

	Transwell Cultures	Perfusion Systems	Ussing Chambers	Organoids	Explant Cultures
Medium dynamics	Static	Perfused	Static	Static	Static
Available drug permeability data	+++	+	+++	—	++
Cellular complexity	Enterocytes +/− Goblet cells and M cells	Enterocytes, Goblet cells, enteroendocrine cells, Paneth cells	All intestinal cell types	Enterocytes, Goblet cells, enteroendocrine cells, Paneth cells	All intestinal cell types
Molecular phenotype	+	++	+++	++	+++
Mucus	Some, if Goblet cells are added	Can reach physiologic levels	Yes	Some	Yes
Phenotypic stability	Multiple weeks	Multiple weeks	Hours	Multiple weeks, allow passaging	6–24 h
Throughput	+++	++	+	+++	+
Ease of use	+++	+	++	+	++
Costs	+++	+	++	+++	++
Model versatility	++	+++	+	+++	++
Microbiota	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Peristalsis	No	Yes	No	No	No
Main applications	Drug absorption	Disease modeling	Drug absorption	Intestinal development, regenerative medicine	Drug absorption, acute toxicity