Enhanced pulmonary delivery of insulin by lung lavage fluid and phospholipids.

Pulmonary delivery appears to be the most promising non-parenteral route of insulin administration. In this work, we investigated the enhancement of insulin absorption in the presence of phospholipids and lung lavage fluid in vivo and in vitro. In-vitro experiments of insulin uptake by type II cells showed a significantly enhanced absorption in presence of lavage fluid, compared to various buffer preparations. The same trend was obtained with in-vivo studies of tracheal instillation of insulin. The incorporation of phospholipids as absorption enhancers in 1,2-dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) dispersion was compared to blank liposomes. A significantly higher blood glucose decrease was observed with a DPPC–insulin physical mixture compared to liposome, suggesting a possible effect of the phospholipid chain physical state on the insulin in-vivo absorption.