 A recent study by Fernandez et al.further investigated on this issue using an in vitro model of intestinal permeability with differentiated monolayers of human colonic Caco-2 cells, confirming that palytoxin was unable to cross the intestinal barrier significantly, despite the damage the toxin exerted on cells and on the integrity of the monolayer.The same study also revealed that palytoxin does not affect tight-junctions on such cells.