Geurs Indi, Olenic Maria, De Vlieghere Elly, Grootaert Charlotte, Philips Charlot, Dewettinck Koen, Bray Fabrice, Rolando Christian, Thorrez Lieven, Van Vlierberghe Sandra, Van Camp John
Food Structure and Function Research Group, Department of Food Technology Safety and Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Group, Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry (CMaC)Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Curr Res Food Sci. 2025 Jun 26;11:101129. doi: 10.1016/j.crfs.2025.101129. eCollection 2025.
Large-scale production of cultured meat requires muscle cell culture in bioreactors, where microcarriers (MCs) support cell attachment, growth, and differentiation. However, most MCs are composed of inedible materials, requiring a cell detachment step, and/or contain animal-derived components, which are undesirable for cultured meat production. Therefore, we developed animal-free edible microcarriers based on soy protein isolate (SPI) that support muscle cell growth. SPI MCs supported cell attachment and growth similar to commercial collagen-coated dextran MCs, as bovine myoblasts expanded 24-fold over 8 days in a bioreactor. Moreover, myoblasts could differentiate into myotubes on the SPI-MCs. Importantly, SPI supported cell attachment in serum-free medium, as opposed to methacrylated gelatin (GelMA). Proteomics analysis revealed that, during SPI processing, cell adhesion peptides become available on the biomaterial, which also partially leach into the cell culture medium and replace serum components. To conclude, our study demonstrates the feasibility of growing and differentiating bovine muscle cells on edible, fully plant-based MCs, providing a scalable system for the production of cultured meat.
培养肉的大规模生产需要在生物反应器中进行肌肉细胞培养，其中微载体（MCs）支持细胞附着、生长和分化。然而，大多数微载体由不可食用的材料组成，需要进行细胞分离步骤，和/或含有动物源成分，这对于培养肉生产来说是不可取的。因此，我们基于大豆分离蛋白（SPI）开发了无动物源的可食用微载体，以支持肌肉细胞生长。SPI微载体支持细胞附着和生长，类似于商业胶原蛋白包被的葡聚糖微载体，因为牛成肌细胞在生物反应器中8天内扩增了24倍。此外，成肌细胞可以在SPI微载体上分化为肌管。重要的是，与甲基丙烯酸化明胶（GelMA）不同，SPI在无血清培养基中支持细胞附着。蛋白质组学分析表明，在SPI加工过程中，细胞粘附肽在生物材料上可用，这些肽也会部分渗入细胞培养基并取代血清成分。总之，我们的研究证明了在可食用的、完全基于植物的微载体上培养和分化牛肌肉细胞的可行性，为培养肉的生产提供了一个可扩展的系统。
