Highly aligned myotubes formation of piscine satellite cells in 3D fibrin hydrogels of cultured meat.

Currently, various cultured meat products, including chicken, beef and pork, have been developed. However, established methods for production cultured fish meat with highly aligned myotubes are still lacking. In this study, we introduced a culture method based on high-biocompatibility fibrin hydrogels with an easy-to-use tissue mold for obtaining cultured fish fillets that closely mimicked the structure of natural fish fillets. Results showed that highly aligned myotubes were observed within the muscle bundles culturing in the tissue mold. The myotube fusion index was also increased to 72.65 %. Furthermore, key differentiation genes (desmin, myosin light chain kinase, myocilin) were up-regulated in the tissue mold group. Transcriptomic analysis further supported the effectiveness of method in promoting myoblast fusion. Stiffness of the muscle bundles was also positively impacted by the tissue mold. Ultimately, sensory and nutritional characteristics of natural and cultured fish fillets were compared, revealing that cultured fish fillets prepared from the tissue mold was closer to natural fish fillets in sensory characteristic, and there were still some gaps with natural fish fillets in nutritional characteristic. Overall, our findings suggest that optimizing culture methods can help bridge some gaps between natural meat and cultured meat, facilitating the development of cultured fish meat.