Well-designed in vitro simulation technologies offer a very useful alternative approach for human or animal studies.
Centrally in its technology platform ProDigest will use the Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME) and related models.
SHIME scheme
The SHIME was developed in 1993 at LabMET by dr. Koen Molly as a dynamic model to study physicochemical, enzymatic and microbial parameters in the gastrointestinal tract in a controlled in vitro setting. The model consists of five reactors which sequentially simulate the stomach, small intestine and the three regions of the large intestine, i.e. the ascending, transverse and descending colon. A recent adaptation of the SHIME is the TWINSHIME setup, in which 2 SHIME systems are operating in parallel. being all the environmental parameters perfectly identical, it is possible to clearly assess the effect of the studied compounds without any external interference.
TWINSHIME System
Typical experiments consist of introducing a test product or bacterial strain into the system in a single or repeated dose for short or long term simulation of oral ingestion of the compound. This allows to assess:
o The metabolic fate of a given compound in the complete
gastrointestinal tract, including the stomach, small intestine and
colon.
- Stability, digestion and bioavailability in the stomach and small
intestine
- The metabolism by the gastrointestinal microbial community
(e.g. plant polyphenolics or pharmaceuticals).
- The effect on the structure, composition and activity of the
gastrointestinal microbial community (e.g. prebiotics or antibiotics)
o The evaluation of the efficacy of a probiotic/synbiotic
treatment or oral administration of living micro-organisms
- The resistance to the host environment in stomach and small
intestine
- The capacity to compete with the indigenous microbiota
- The effect on the general microbial community structure and
activity.
- The effect of a given prebiotic on the efficacy of a given probiotic
- The evaluation of specific functional properties of the administered
microorganism
o The direct comparison of specific experiments using the
TWINSHIME setup
- The effect of a specific compound on two different microbial
communities
- The effect of two different compounds on the same microbial
community
Sampling of the different regions of the model allows to study a broad range of microbial, enzymatic, chemical and biological parameters and to evaluate in great detail modifications of the product’s structure and biological activity and the effect of the administration on the microbial community composition and host health.
Next to the SHIME, the ProDigest technology platform includes a number of other in vitro setups to answer other specific research questions. This includes:
- Assessment of dissolution of chemicals and pharmaceuticals or
survival of probiotic bacteria in the stomach and small intestine
- Study of bacteria - host interactions
- Study of bacterial adhesion processes
- Specific tests on cell-lines in direct combination with SHIME
- Experiments to evaluate functional properties of a given compound
in situ in the intestinal environment (e.g. (anti-)inflammatory effect,
cytotoxicity, oxidation, mutagenicity…)
- Screening of specific metabolic activities of intestinal bacteria
- Isolation of bacteria with specific metabolic activity
- Application of bacteria for the fermentative production of certain
metabolites with specific biological activity
- Application of isolated bacteria for the use as probiotics.