In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of advanced in vitro digestion systems to study the fate of foods during digestion in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. This is particularly important to understand the physiological effect of foods on human health and to develop healthy foods with desired functions. Here, the representative in vitro systems (testing devices) already reported in literature are summarized and critically reviewed. The gross GI morphology and anatomical structures in humans and rats those are likely to have considerable effect on food digestion are described. The motivations, ideas and mechanisms of the biomimic dynamic in vitro rat and human stomach-intestine devices are presented in particular to show where we are at in this field. Despite that the valuable scientific insights have been gained through the current in vitro GI models, none of them seen to have effectively mimicked the aspects of GI morphology and anatomy. These should be taken into account along with the related biochemical environments and peristaltic movements occurring in vivo, in order to show the way forward for the development of more realistic in vitro models.

近年来，人们对开发先进的体外消化系统以研究胃肠道（GI）消化过程中的食物命运的兴趣日益浓厚。这对于了解食品对人体健康的生理影响以及开发具有所需功能的健康食品尤为重要。在此，总结并严格审查了文献中已报道的代表性体外系统（测试装置）。描述了可能对食物消化产生重大影响的人和大鼠的总胃肠道形态和解剖结构。体外仿生动力学的动机，思想和机制特别介绍了大鼠和人的肠胃设备，以显示我们在该领域中的地位。尽管通过当前的体外GI模型已经获得了有价值的科学见解，但没有一个能有效地模仿GI形态和解剖学方面。这些应与相关的生化环境和体内发生的蠕动一起考虑在内，以便为开发更现实的体外模型指明前进的方向。