The Computer-Controlled Multicompartmental Dynamic Model of the Gastrointestinal System SIMGI
Elvira Barroso, Carolina Cueva, Carmen Peláez, M. Carmen Martínez-Cuesta, and Teresa Requena
Abstract The SIMGI (SIMulator Gastro-Intestinal) is an automated gastrointestinal in vitro model designed to dynamically simulate the physiological processes taking place during digestion in the stomach and small intestine, as well as to reproduce the colonic microbiota responsible for metabolic bioconversions in the large intestine. This computer-controlled system is a flexible modulating system that combines a gastric compartment that operates with peristaltic mixing movements, a reactor simulating the small intestine and three-stage continuous reactors that reproduce the colon region-specific microbiota. The compartments designed for digestion (stomach and small intestine) and fermentation (colon) can be connected to operate jointly. Alternatively, the digestion and fermentation processes can proceed independently. This section describes the conditions needed to inoculate, stabilize and differentiate the fecal microbiota in the SIMGI system, as well as the steps to follow in order to test the stabilized colonic microbiota with different food ingredients and/or by modifying the caloric intake in the nutrition media.
Keywords Automated in vitro dynamic model • Three-stage fermentation • SIMGI
• Colon microbiota
Fig. 28.1 Schematic diagram of the SIMulator Gastro-Intestinal SIMGI
Description of the Model
History and Special Features of the Model
The SIMGI model is a fully automated gastrointestinal multichamber simulator that has been recently developed at the Institute of Food Science Research CIAL (CSICUAM, Madrid, Spain). The SIMGI comprises five interconnected compartments (units) that simulate the stomach, small intestine and three stages of the large intestine (Fig. 28.1). The process of digestion is simulated in units Stomach and Small Intestine. Unit Stomach is comprised of two cylindrical transparent and rigid methacrylate plastic modules covering a reservoir of flexible silicone walls where the gastric content is mixed by peristaltic movements. The simulation of gastric peristalsis is achieved by changing the pressure of the water that flows in the jacket between the plastic modules and the reservoir. The pumped thermostated water keeps the temperature of the gastric content at 37 °C. The stomach compartment has different ports for input of experimental food components, gastric juice, and HCl. The pH decrease is computer-controlled to follow the curve resulting from a linear fit of data representing experimental in vivo conditions. The small intestine consists in a double jacket glass reactor vessel continuously stirred that receives the gastric content which is mixed with pancreatic juice and bile. The intestinal content is digested during 2 h at 37 °C and kept at pH 6.8. The stages of the large intestine are simulated in three double jacket glass reactors and the colon content is kept at 37 °C by pumping thermostated water into the space between the glass jackets. The pH in the colonic units (named ascending AC, transverse TC and descending DC colon) is controlled by addition of 0.5 M NaOH and 0.5 M HCl to keep values of 5.6 ± 0.2 in the AC, 6.3 ± 0.2 in the TC and 6.8 ± 0.2 in the DC compartments. When the digested content of the small intestine is transferred to the proximal colon compartment (AC), the transit of colonic content between the AC, TC and DC compartments is simultaneously initiated at the same flow rate. The intestinal and colonic vessels contain ports for transit of intestinal content, sampling, continuous flushing of nitrogen and pH and temperature control.
The SIMGI design is aimed to dynamically operate with the five units simulating the whole gastrointestinal process. In addition, the SIMGI software allows the work of the stomach and the small intestine in a continuous way to study food digestion and at the same time running in parallel, direct feeding of the small intestine and the transit to the colonic vessels to study microbial community development and metabolism. In this way, the system is flexible and adaptable to each need of experimental approach.
