In Vitro Artificial Stomach Model Simulating the Human Stomach
In vitro digestion models simulating the human body compartments have universally been used since the late 1990’s in accomplishing the studies of pharmacology, nutrition, toxicology and micro-ecology and general safety assessments where the complexities of in vivo studies have evolved from ethical constraints, costs, accuracy, reproducibility and excessive time consumption. The efficiency and the safety of massively produced fortified and/or pre-/probiotic incorporated foods and drugs cannot always be assured. Thus creating an in vitro digestion model that actually dissembles more realistically the gastrointestinal tract with respect to anatomy, functions, motility and physiology of human in vivo studies will consent us to observe real-time processes as closely as possible. In vitro artificial stomach reactor simulating the human stomach has been recently developed at Monash University to examine the behavior and the significance of food and pharmaceutical products during the digestion processes. The in vitro artificial stomach reactor with innovative concepts of gastric secretion and gastric motility has been discussed and compared to the stomach compartment of the two well-known existing in vitro gastrointestinal models- simulator of the human intestinal microbial ecosystem (SHIME) and TNO-gastrointestinal model (TIM). The real size in vitro stomach reactor is composed of high performance silicone rubber where a large number of tygon micro-tubings are implanted on the walls of the stomach reactor to deliver the gastric secretion as closely as possible to in vivo condition.