Centrally in its technology platform, ProDigest uses the Simulator of Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME).
The SHIME is a unique scientifically validated dynamic model of the complete gastrointestinal tract 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 (acid conditions and pepsin digestion), small intestine (digestive processes) and the 3 regions of the large intestine, i.e. the ascending, transverse and descending colon (microbial processes). Careful control of the environmental parameters in these reactors allows to obtain complex and stable microbial communities which are highly similar in both structure and function to the microbial community in the different regions of the human colon. The model can be used to study the metabolic fate of food compounds and pharmaceuticals over a period of several weeks.
A recent evolution of the SHIME is the TWINSHIME, in which two SHIME systems are run in parallel, and where all the environmental parameters are completely identical. This allows to perform placebo-controlled in vitro studies or the direct comparison of the intestinal fate of two products under identical conditions without interference of external parameters.
TWINSHIME System
As compared with other GI simulators the SHIME is unique in the following features:
- The complete gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is simulated, from stomach to descending colon
- Easy sampling of all regions allows to generate detailed mechanistic information on the intestinal fate of study compounds, such as factors affecting the bioavailability of active compounds (e.g. formulation or matrix effects), metabolic/fermentative processes which affect the structure or nature of active compounds and local activity profiles in the gastrointestinal tract.
- The specific setup of the SHIME allows to perform long-term experiments (up to several months) with a stable, in vitro-adapted microbial community and using physiologically relevant product doses.
- The possibility of sampling big volumes from each colon area allows to perform parallel analyses without impacting the resident microbial community.
Typical experiments can be conducted to evaluate the effect of repeated doses of specific products (i.e. prebiotic, probiotic, synbiotic, active food ingredients, pharmaceutical preparations…) under in vivo-like conditions on:
- The metabolic fate of active compounds
- The stability, digestion and bioavailability in the stomach and small intestine
- The metabolism by and the effect on the composition and activity of the gastrointestinal microbial community (e.g. activation of precursors, production of metabolites, effect on selected species…).