Team develops non-allergenic wheat protein to produce better-cultured meat

As the world’s population increases, cultured or lab-grown meat (the muscle and fat cells of laboratory-grown animals) has emerged as a potential way to meet future protein needs. And inexpensive, edible plant proteins could be used to grow these cell cultures. Now, researchers ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering report that the non-allergenic wheat protein glutenin successfully developed striated muscle layers and flat fat layers, which could be combined to produce meat-like textures.

Cultured cells need a base or scaffold to adhere to in order to produce lab-grown meat. Plant proteins are attractive candidates for scaffolds because they are edible, abundant, and inexpensive. Previous researchers showed that a glutenin-based plant film provided an effective basis for growing cow skeletal muscle cells. But for this technique to produce a promising meat-like alternative, muscle cells must form aligned fibers, similar to the texture of real tissue.

Additionally, fat must be included in the 3D structure to replicate the composition of traditional meat products. To take advantage of the use of glutenin, a protein in gluten that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity typically do not react to, Ya Yao, John Yuen, Jr., Chunmei Li, David Kaplan and colleagues wanted to develop plant-based films. with it to develop textured muscle cells and fatty layers.

The researchers isolated glutenin from wheat gluten and formed flat, ridge-patterned films. Next, they deposited mouse cells that develop into skeletal muscle onto the protein bases and incubated the cell-coated films for two weeks. Cells grew and proliferated on the flat and ridged films. As expected, compared to cells grown on gelatin control films, the performance of glutenin-based films was lower but sufficient.

The researchers say more work needs to be done to improve how cells attach to the plant film to approximate growth on animal-derived biomaterial. During the second week of culture, the cells in the patterned film formed long parallel bundles, recreating the fibrous structure of animal muscles.

In another test, mouse cells producing adipose tissue were spotted on flat films of glutenin. During the incubation period, as the cells proliferated and differentiated, they produced visible deposits of lipids and collagen.

Layers of cultured meat and fat attached to edible glutenin films could be stacked to form an alternative 3D meat-like protein. Since the glutenin material base supported the growth of both the animals’ textured muscles and fat layers, the researchers say it could be used in an approach for more realistic cultured meat products.