Let’s Get Ready to Rumble: The World’s First Artificial Stomach
By Jennifer Altavilla
An unlikely hero in the fight against obesity and diabetes may have emerged in the form of the world’s first artificial stomach. Using the artificial stomach to study how the stomach digests and reacts to certain foods, British scientist Martin Wickham and his colleagues at Norwich’s Institute of Food Research contend that their prized $1.8 million machine will eventually lead to the development of healthier foods (1, 2).
This new stomach, made of a combination of plastics and metals, is a colossal improvement on the text tube varieties used before, which were only able to simulate the chemical reactions within the stomach lining (2). Slightly smaller than a desktop computer, able to hold half the food capacity (24 oz) of its living counterpart, this new stomach acts in a manner similar to the real organ (5, 8). The top half of the machine, a cylinder with a blue funnel, is where actual “digestion” takes place. The stomach is “fed” food and amazingly combines the food with potent stomach acid and digestive enzymes. The food then travels down a metal tube to the bottom of the machine to a transparent box, where it is crushed and stored. Computer programs control the internal mechanisms of the artificial gut, including the amount of time the food spends in each part of the stomach, which nutrients are absorbed at certain times, and the various hormonal responses characteristic of the real organ (2). The sophisticated system can even control whether the artificial stomach acts as an adult or infant organ (4). In fact, the machine is so advanced that it contracts as the real organ does and is even able to “vomit” (2).
Wickham admits the artificial stomach is still in its infant stages and needs perfecting before it can be considered a close enough replica to the living stomach to be a viable research tool. He contends the obstacles he faced in creating the stomach were due to scientists’ limited knowledge of the organ; “Our knowledge of what actually happens in the gut is still very rudimentary.” However, he still believes his machine has promise and asserts that “this model can help fill in some of the blanks” (1).
As of now, Wickham and his colleagues are negotiating with twelve companies for rights to use the artificial stomach for research purposes (1). One company wants to use the machine to see if the soil contaminants children often eat are actually absorbed into the bloodstream, while another company is interested in discovering if a biscuit releases a certain nutrient in the small intestine (1). The machine would also be able to study diabetes and obesity, probably its most pertinent use when regarding public health. The artificial gut has the capability to track how fast glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream, which could, in turn, help to cure, or at least control, diabetes (2). The stomach can also be used in the development of super-nutrients, which could potentially be inserted into existing food to increase its nutritional value, and which also could be used as obesity fighting agents by fooling the stomach into thinking it is full (1).
Wickham’s innovation could not have come at more opportune time, with diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, and obesity on the rise. According the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, 20.8 million Americans have diabetes, a disease which can result in heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, nerve problems and gum infections. The most frightening statistic however, is that 6.2 million of those Americans are undiagnosed. Ninety to ninety-five percent of all diabetes cases are type 2, which is caused by obesity and is becoming increasingly prevalent in young children and adolescents (6).
The artificial stomach might also aid in fighting the obesity epidemic. 30% of the American population over the age of 20, (a total of 60 million people), are considered obese, meaning they have a body mass index over 30. Nine million children and teens aged six to nineteen, (16% of the American population), are obese as well. These adults and youths are at risk for hypertension, coronary heart disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and, worst of all, type 2 diabetes (3).
Wickham certainly wasn’t thinking of unfortunate Americans while he was designing his artificial stomach, but obesity is a threat to his own British countrymen as well. The number of British obese individuals has tripled in the past twenty years and as of 2005, one in five British adults was considered obese. By 2010 that figure is expected to reach one in four (7).
Clearly, our world desperately needs intervention. Whether the artificial
stomach is the savior that society has been waiting for is unclear at
present. There are already skeptics who doubt that the artificial stomach
can accurately replicate the functions of its live counterpart, thus
solving the mysteries of diabetes and obesity. Most prominent of these
disbelievers, Dr. Stephen Bloom, head of metabolic medicine at the Imperial
College in London, says, “The stomach is an extraordinarily complex
organ, so you cannot create a model that will undertake all of those
functions” (4). Critics aside, most of the world can agree that anything
promising to improve public health, proven successful or not, is a step
in the right direction.
Sources:
1. “British Scientists Build Artificial Gut.” 10 November 2006. 14 November 2006
2. “British Scientists Create Artificial Stomach.” IANS. 12 November 2006. 14 November 2006 < http://in.news.yahoo.com>.
3. CDC Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. 14 November 2006.
< www.cdc.gov>.
4. Cheng, Maria. “British Scientists Build a Model Gut.” 11 November 2006. 14 November 2006 < http://cbsnews.com>.
5. “First Artificial Heart Has a Real Gut Instinct.” 14 November 2006
6. “National Diabetes Statistics.” National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse. 14 November 2006 < http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov>.
7. “Obesity Rate Triples.” BBC News. 15 February 2001. 14 November 2006
8. “Scientists Develop First Artificial Stomach.”
