Growing meat on autoclaved vegetables with biomimetic stiffness and micro-patterns

Ye Liu (), Anqi Gao, Tiantian Wang, Yongqian Zhang, Gaoxiang Zhu, Sida Ling, Zhaozhao Wu, Yuhong Jin, Haoke Chen, Yuming Lai, Rui Zhang, Yuchen Yang, Jianyong Han, Yulin Deng and Yanan Du ()
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Ye Liu: Beijing Institute of Technology
Anqi Gao: Beijing Institute of Technology
Tiantian Wang: Tsinghua University
Yongqian Zhang: Beijing Institute of Technology
Gaoxiang Zhu: Nanchang University
Sida Ling: Tsinghua University
Zhaozhao Wu: Tsinghua University
Yuhong Jin: Tsinghua University
Haoke Chen: Tsinghua University
Yuming Lai: Beijing Institute of Technology
Rui Zhang: Tsinghua University
Yuchen Yang: Tsinghua University
Jianyong Han: China Agricultural University
Yulin Deng: Beijing Institute of Technology
Yanan Du: Tsinghua University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Cultured meat needs edible bio-scaffolds that provide not only a growth milieu for muscle and adipose cells, but also biomimetic stiffness and tissue-sculpting topography. Current meat-engineering technologies struggle to achieve scalable cell production, efficient cell differentiation, and tissue maturation in one single culture system. Here we propose an autoclaving strategy to transform common vegetables into muscle- and adipose-engineering scaffolds, without undergoing conventional plant decellularization. We selected vegetables with natural anisotropic and isotropic topology mimicking muscle and adipose microstructures respectively. We further adjusted vegetable stiffness by autoclaving, to emulate the mechanical properties of animal tissues. Autoclaved vegetables preserve rich cell-affinitive moieties, yielding a good cell culture effect with simplified processing. Autoclaved Chinese chive and Shiitake mushroom with anisotropic micro-patterns support the scalable expansion of muscle cells, improved cell alignment and myogenesis. Autoclaved isotropic loofah encourages adipocyte proliferation and lipid accumulation. Our engineered muscle- and fat-on-vegetables can further construct meat stuffing or layered meat chips. Autoclaved vegetables possess tissue-mimicking stiffness and topology, and bring biochemical benefits, operational ease, cost reduction and bioreactor compatibility. Without needing decellularization, these natural biomaterials may see scale-up applications in meat analog bio-fabrication.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55048-6

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