In Situ and Ex Vivo Nasal Models for Preclinical Drug Development Studies

Abstract

Advances in drug delivery research are to a reasonable extent dependent on the use of innovative experimental models. As a result of many experimental, methodological, and ethical limitations associated with the use of the human species, animal models are routinely used for drug delivery studies, especially during early stages of drug development. The use of excised and cultured human or animal tissues as in vitro models to study nasal drug absorption and metabolism is growing in popularity. Based on the difficulties in obtaining human tissues or maintaining them in culture, most reported in vitro nasal drug transport and metabolism studies are based on animal tissues. A comparative treatise of various in situ and ex vivo nasal models is presented in this chapter. The advantages, limitations, specific applications of the various models in preclinical drug development, and in vivo/in vitro correlations are highlighted.