Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns

Abstract Cultured meat needs edible bio-scaffolds that provide not only a growth milieu for muscle and adipose cells, but also biomimetic stiffness and tissue-sculpting topography. Current meat-engineering technologies struggle to achieve scalable cell production, efficient cell differentiation, and...

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Main Authors: Ye Liu, Anqi Gao, Tiantian Wang, Yongqian Zhang, Gaoxiang Zhu, Sida Ling, Zhaozhao Wu, Yuhong Jin, Haoke Chen, Yuming Lai, Rui Zhang, Yuchen Yang, Jianyong Han, Yulin Deng, Yanan Du
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-01-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55048-6
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author Ye Liu
Anqi Gao
Tiantian Wang
Yongqian Zhang
Gaoxiang Zhu
Sida Ling
Zhaozhao Wu
Yuhong Jin
Haoke Chen
Yuming Lai
Rui Zhang
Yuchen Yang
Jianyong Han
Yulin Deng
Yanan Du
author_facet Ye Liu
Anqi Gao
Tiantian Wang
Yongqian Zhang
Gaoxiang Zhu
Sida Ling
Zhaozhao Wu
Yuhong Jin
Haoke Chen
Yuming Lai
Rui Zhang
Yuchen Yang
Jianyong Han
Yulin Deng
Yanan Du
author_sort Ye Liu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Cultured meat needs edible bio-scaffolds that provide not only a growth milieu for muscle and adipose cells, but also biomimetic stiffness and tissue-sculpting topography. Current meat-engineering technologies struggle to achieve scalable cell production, efficient cell differentiation, and tissue maturation in one single culture system. Here we propose an autoclaving strategy to transform common vegetables into muscle- and adipose-engineering scaffolds, without undergoing conventional plant decellularization. We selected vegetables with natural anisotropic and isotropic topology mimicking muscle and adipose microstructures respectively. We further adjusted vegetable stiffness by autoclaving, to emulate the mechanical properties of animal tissues. Autoclaved vegetables preserve rich cell-affinitive moieties, yielding a good cell culture effect with simplified processing. Autoclaved Chinese chive and Shiitake mushroom with anisotropic micro-patterns support the scalable expansion of muscle cells, improved cell alignment and myogenesis. Autoclaved isotropic loofah encourages adipocyte proliferation and lipid accumulation. Our engineered muscle- and fat-on-vegetables can further construct meat stuffing or layered meat chips. Autoclaved vegetables possess tissue-mimicking stiffness and topology, and bring biochemical benefits, operational ease, cost reduction and bioreactor compatibility. Without needing decellularization, these natural biomaterials may see scale-up applications in meat analog bio-fabrication.
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spelling doaj-art-2cc3e96bcde547aba5018f53ecd3471b2025-01-05T12:37:07ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-0116111610.1038/s41467-024-55048-6Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patternsYe Liu0Anqi Gao1Tiantian Wang2Yongqian Zhang3Gaoxiang Zhu4Sida Ling5Zhaozhao Wu6Yuhong Jin7Haoke Chen8Yuming Lai9Rui Zhang10Yuchen Yang11Jianyong Han12Yulin Deng13Yanan Du14Institute of Engineering Medicine, Beijing Institute of TechnologyInstitute of Engineering Medicine, Beijing Institute of TechnologySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversityInstitute of Engineering Medicine, Beijing Institute of TechnologyJiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, Jiangxi Institute of Respiratory Diseases, The Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang UniversitySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversitySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversitySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversitySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversityInstitute of Engineering Medicine, Beijing Institute of TechnologySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversitySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversityState Key Laboratory of Animal Biotech Breeding, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural UniversityInstitute of Engineering Medicine, Beijing Institute of TechnologySchool of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua Medicine; Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua UniversityAbstract Cultured meat needs edible bio-scaffolds that provide not only a growth milieu for muscle and adipose cells, but also biomimetic stiffness and tissue-sculpting topography. Current meat-engineering technologies struggle to achieve scalable cell production, efficient cell differentiation, and tissue maturation in one single culture system. Here we propose an autoclaving strategy to transform common vegetables into muscle- and adipose-engineering scaffolds, without undergoing conventional plant decellularization. We selected vegetables with natural anisotropic and isotropic topology mimicking muscle and adipose microstructures respectively. We further adjusted vegetable stiffness by autoclaving, to emulate the mechanical properties of animal tissues. Autoclaved vegetables preserve rich cell-affinitive moieties, yielding a good cell culture effect with simplified processing. Autoclaved Chinese chive and Shiitake mushroom with anisotropic micro-patterns support the scalable expansion of muscle cells, improved cell alignment and myogenesis. Autoclaved isotropic loofah encourages adipocyte proliferation and lipid accumulation. Our engineered muscle- and fat-on-vegetables can further construct meat stuffing or layered meat chips. Autoclaved vegetables possess tissue-mimicking stiffness and topology, and bring biochemical benefits, operational ease, cost reduction and bioreactor compatibility. Without needing decellularization, these natural biomaterials may see scale-up applications in meat analog bio-fabrication.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55048-6
spellingShingle Ye Liu
Anqi Gao
Tiantian Wang
Yongqian Zhang
Gaoxiang Zhu
Sida Ling
Zhaozhao Wu
Yuhong Jin
Haoke Chen
Yuming Lai
Rui Zhang
Yuchen Yang
Jianyong Han
Yulin Deng
Yanan Du
Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
Nature Communications
title Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
title_full Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
title_fullStr Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
title_full_unstemmed Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
title_short Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns
title_sort growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro patterns
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55048-6
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