ProDigest can perform in vivo animal studies to validate in vitro results, using conventional or germ-free/gnotobiotic and Human Microflora Associated (HMA) rodents.
HMA rodents are germfree animals inoculated with specific or complex human intestinal bacterial communities, allowing to specifically transfer certain components of the human flora into the animal GI tract. HMA animals represent an efficient model to study the ecology of intestinal flora and bacterium-host interactions in a standardized model of the human gut, by excluding difficulties in controlling genetics, environmental and dietary conditions which occur when performing human intervention studies.
The in vivo rodent model allows to integrate physiological host factors in the study and can act as a validation of previous in vitro findings related to the bioavailabilty and generation of active compounds in the GI tract, the evaluation of pre-, pro-, or synbiotic treatments, the interaction of the microbial ecosystem with the host etc…