Cultured meat is meat made by artificially increasing a small amount of cells taken out from animals by culturing.Amid calls for a future protein crisis due to population growth and improved eating habits, efforts are being made around the world to put cultured meat to practical use.However, most of the cultured meat so far is minced meat composed only of muscle fibers, and it has been difficult to reproduce the complicated tissue structure of meat such as "Sashi" of Wagyu beef.

　This time, the research group created "3D-printed Kintaro-ame technology" that reproduces the complex structure of meat by creating different fibrous tissues such as muscle, fat, and blood vessels by 3D printing and integrating them like Kintaro-ame. development.This makes it possible to build a complex tissue structure of meat in a tailor-made manner.By creating "artificial tendon tissue" from type I collagen, which is the main component of tendons, and binding each fibrous tissue to it, stable production of fibrous tissue has become possible.

　By improving the technology in the future, it will be possible to reproduce more complicated meat structures such as the beautiful "sashi" of Wagyu beef, and to finely adjust the taste and texture by controlling the amount of fat and muscle components.In addition, if we can develop an automatic device that includes the culture process of muscle, fat, and vascular cells other than 3D printing, it will be possible to produce sustainable cultured meat anywhere, and SDGs such as reduction of global warming factors associated with meat production and breeding will be possible. It is also expected to contribute to.

Paper information:[Nature Communications] Engineered Whole Cut Meat-like Tissue by the Assembly of Cell Fibers using Tendon-Gel Integrated Bioprinting