Marine Biopolymers to Culture In-Vitro Meat

Abstract

In recent years, in-vitro meat has emerged as a new concept in the field of food biotechnology. In-vitro meat uses tissue engineering tools to produce an edible muscle without slaughtering animals. The methods to produce in-vitro meat employ the growth of muscle-cells on a polymeric material (called scaffold) suspended in a culture medium within a bioreactor. The design of edible materials where muscle-cells can live and proliferate is a critical manufacturing stage. The main problem emerges because the current knowledge about the design of scaffolds uses mammalian polymers (bovine gelatin, collagen, fibrin, hyaluronic acid and others). If not slaughtering mammals is the paradigm, then scaffolds made from them must also be replaced. In this work, edible materials were designed using marine biopolymers such as fish-gelatin, alginate, agar and agarose; to be used as scaffolds. The freeze drying process was used to produce the polymeric materials. The physical, mechanical and biological properties of the scaffolds were evaluated. The polymeric materials showed an adequate microstructure and biocompatibility with muscle cells. Additionally, the biological properties of the edible polymeric scaffold allowed an adequate myogenic behavior and cell distribution. The system composed by the edible scaffold and muscle-cells can be used in the production of in-vitro meat.