3D printing of edible biomimetic scaffolds for the engineering of animal muscle tissue

到2050年，动物性食品的需求将增加70%，以满足全球人口22.5%的增长。然而，全球已有8亿人遭受饥饿和营养不良之苦，畜牧业贡献了全球年温室气体排放量的12%-18%。与传统方法相比，人工培育的肉类是一种更安全、更友好的肉类生产方法。然而，由于最终产品的复杂性，在体外复制肉类非常具有挑战性。此外，栽培肉类需要与传统生产的肉类的感官特性相匹配，才能获得消费者的接受。在组织工程中已经探索了使用3D打印的添加剂制造来创建人造组织和器官，因此有望制造支架来支持结构化栽培肉类产品的形成。在这方面，3D打印有两种不同的方法：(A)构建多孔无细胞3D结构，在打印后种植细胞；以及(B)直接生物打印负载细胞的生物材料。虽然3D生物打印可以实现准确的细胞分布，但设计合适的生物墨水并不是一件容易的事情。该项目旨在将可食用聚合物和3D打印相结合，以生产完整的栽培肉类为最终目标，创造一种具有支持和维持细胞活性和功能的结构和机械性能的支架材料。

The demand for animal-based foods will increase by 70% in 2050 to meet the 22.5% growth in global population. Yet, 800 million people worldwide already suffer from hunger and malnutrition, and the livestock industry contributes 12-18% of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions. Cultivated' meat is an alternative way to produce meat which is safer and kinder to the animals and the planet compared to traditional methods. Replicating meat in vitro, however, is very challenging because of the complex nature of the final product. Furthermore, cultivated meat needs to match the organoleptic properties of conventionally produced meat in order to gain consumer acceptance. Additive manufacturing using 3D printing has already been explored in tissue engineering for the creation of artificial tissues and organs and therefore holds promise for the fabrication of scaffolds to support the formation of structured cultivated meat products. There are two different approaches to 3D printing in this context: (a) building porous acellular 3D structures which are seeded with cells post-printing; and (b) direct bioprinting of cell-laden biomaterials. Although 3D bioprinting can achieve accurate cell distribution, designing a suitable bioink is not an easy task. This project aims to combine edible polymers and 3D printing to create a scaffold material which possess structural and mechanical properties that support and maintain cellular viability and function, with the production of whole cut cultivated meat as the ultimate goal.