Gastric emptying and morphology of a ‘near real’ in vitro human stomach model (RD-IV-HSM)

Abstract

Gastric morphology refers to the shape and the structural characteristics of the structure of the stomach. A ‘near-real’ in vitro human stomach model should not only mimic the physical movements to provide the digestion environment, but also provide realistic gastric morphology. In this work, quantitative evidences regarding the effects of gastric morphology including complex geometrical shape and inner wrinkles of a human stomach in a ‘rope-driven’ in vitro human stomach (RD-IV-HSM) have been investigated, which is relevant to the in vivo emptying behaviors. Contractive force in the antral area of the in vitro system was measured. The investigation has revealed that an initial lag phase and the buffering effect in digestion of solid food exist in the in vitro system. In addition, it has been found that the contractions created in the current device in antrum section contribute little to the gastric sieving phenomena thus the system needs further work to tackle this.