Chitosan-collagen hydrogel microparticles as edible cell microcarriers for cultured meat

Offering conventional meat-like nutritional values and eating experience without harming animals or the environment, cultured meat from livestock animal cells is considered one of the leading solutions to the global food crisis. Cell microcarriers (MCs) have been widely used for the scalable expansion of anchorage-dependent cells for biotechnology applications as well as cultured meat. In the current work, however, we suggest a different concept in which edible MCs can be incorporated into the final product, thus avoiding costly harvesting steps, and contributing to its nutritional values, textures, and appearance. Through addressing the different technological and biological aspects, we present the development of edible hydrogel MCs from chitosan and collagen, edible materials with a wide range of applications in tissue engineering. The obtained composite MCs have a uniform spherical shape of 571 μm diameter, a smooth surface, and suitable mechanical properties. These MCs support the attachment and rapid proliferation of mouse skeletal C2C12 myoblasts, rabbit smooth muscle cells, sheep fibroblasts, and bovine umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, achieving complete coverage of the carrier surface within only a few days in culture. These findings indicate the high potential of the edible microcarriers as a platform for the development of prospective cultured meat products.