My Lab
Kasetsart University : An efficient and reliable
in vitro study of human gut microbiota.
R ecently, the amount of human gut microbiota studies has been increasing. One of the drivers could be a large number of reports on the effects of gut microbiota on the host's health. Nutrition has become an essential factor in gut microbiota modulation, which impacts the host's health. Human intervention studies are the best way to study the gut microbiota and host interaction, but these are also expensive and hampered by ethical constrains. Similarly, animal model is also important for gut microbiome. However, the microbial composition in animal differs from human. The in vitro study that mimics human gut physiology is alternative way. The gut model facilitates unlimited screening possibility of samples and lowering study costs. This model investigates circumventing ethical constrains and facilitating continuous monitoring and sampling possibilities under standardized conditions.
What is gut model, and how’s it works?
This could be achieved by employing a reactor to simulate the human GI tract, also known as gut model. The gut model has a significant benefit in gut microbiome research. How does the gut model work? A gut model is a fermentation system that mimics the state of the human gut (typically the colon part). The fermentation emulates the growth of gut bacteria in the real gut by utilizing "gut broth" and fresh stool as the inoculum. Compounds of interest can also be included to observe how they affect the gut microbiota. Moreover, the newest version of gut models could also cover specific parts of the human gastrointestinal (GI tract), such as the mouth, stomach, small intestine, and colon. Thus, increasing the versatility of gut models for gut microbiota study.
Batch fermentation and dynamic fermentation models are provided in Research Unit of Probiotic and Prebiotic for Health, faculty of Agro-industry, Kasetsart University, Thailand.
