A Reactor to Mimic the Human Stomach - Opportunities and Challenges

R. Paul Singh and David Phinney

An in vitro system that mimics a human stomach is required for studying food disintegration during gastric digestion. Human stomach is a vital organ in the gastro-intestinal tract that converts chewed food into chyme to facilitate later release of nutrients in the small intestines. During gastric digestion, food ingested in the form of bolus is surrounded by gastric juicea concoction of acid and enzymes. Furthermore, the mechanical movement of the stomach walls helps in mixing and grinding the gastric contents. The gastric juice diffuses into the food particulates altering the structure and facilitating the erosion of the outer softened layers. The eroded and sloughed contents from the disintegrating food particulates mix and form the chyme. Components and structure of the ingested food play an important role in the creation of chyme, for example, lipids emulsify due to the shear forces created by the peristaltic movement of the stomach walls. The stomach shape and size vary depending upon the age of the subject. Similarly, the contraction forces and frequency of the peristaltic waves in stomachs of infants, adults and aged influence how foods are digested. In designing a reactor that mimics a human stomach in a reliable manner, the preceding factors must be given careful consideration. The sources of information for the design of a reactor include imaging studies of the human stomach, and in vivo trials with animal models such as pigs. A human gastric simulator, initially built in our laboratory, has undergone several design modifications based on these sources of information. Future work will focus on developing control mechanisms that release gastric juice in the reactor simulating the known physiological conditions. Additionally, more realistic surface properties of the internal walls of the human stomach, such as frictional characteristics due to mucosal layer, will be incorporated.