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KR-20260066746-A - CONSUMABLE TISSUE-LIKE STRUCTURE GENERATED WITH MUSCLE CELLS GROWN ON EDIBLE HOLLOW FIBERS

KR20260066746AKR 20260066746 AKR20260066746 AKR 20260066746AKR-20260066746-A

Abstract

The present invention relates to edible hollow fibers and a cartridge and bioreactor comprising the hollow fibers of the present invention, as well as a method for producing a structured clean meat product produced by the hollow fibers, cartridge and bioreactor of the present invention, and a structured clean meat product produced by said method. The macroscopic structure of the structured clean meat grown on the edible hollow fibers will provide a unique final structure. This final structure will contain a finite amount of fibers per unit area; and the meat is on the outer surface of the fibers.

Inventors

  • 바이센바흐 장-루이
  • 실비아 라이언
  • 폰 데어 브렐리 알무트
  • 브란들 멜라니
  • 페젠펠트 미케일라

Assignees

  • 메르크 파텐트 게엠베하

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20210819
Priority Date
20200821

Claims (17)

  1. As a system for producing structured meat products, a. A plurality of edible hollow fibers, wherein each edible hollow fiber comprises one or more materials selected from the group consisting of hydrocolloids and proteins, has a porous wall, and defines a lumen; b. A cartridge and a housing sized to accommodate the cartridge, wherein the cartridge comprises a first retaining device for securing a first end of a plurality of edible hollow fibers and a second retaining device for securing a second end of a plurality of edible hollow fibers, the plurality of edible hollow fibers are arranged essentially parallel within the cartridge, wherein a void space exists between the hollow fibers in the cartridge, and the housing comprises an inlet flexibly connected to the lumen of the edible hollow fibers through at least one of the first retaining device and the second retaining device of the cartridge and an outlet flexibly connected to the void space; c. One or more myocells, myocell-like cells, or engineered cells expressing one or more myocell-like features, seeded and/or grown in the void spaces between the edible hollow fibers on the outer surface of the edible hollow fibers. A system comprising, wherein the fluid is configured to flow from an inlet to a lumen, further into the void space, and further into an outlet through the porous walls of edible hollow fibers.
  2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber has an outer diameter of 0.2 mm to 2.0 mm.
  3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber comprises one or more of alginate, cellulose, chitosan, collagen, zein, agar, inulin, gluten, pectin, legume protein, methylcellulose, pectin, gelatin, tapioca, xanthan gum, guar gum, tara gum, bean gum, plant protein, starch, plant isolate, lipid, and phospholipid.
  4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the protein comprises one or more of corn protein, potato protein, wheat protein, sorghum protein, animal protein, animal protein isolate, beef protein isolate, casein protein, and whey protein.
  5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the void space is 25% to 75% of the total volume of the cartridge.
  6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber has a porosity of 40% to about 60%.
  7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber has a porosity of 40% to about 75%.
  8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber has a wall thickness of about 0.05 mm to about 0.4 mm.
  9. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fibers have a density in a cartridge of about 20 fibers/ cm² to about 100 fibers/ cm² .
  10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fibers have a density in a cartridge of about 30 fibers/ cm² to about 60 fibers/ cm² .
  11. A system according to claim 1, wherein the void space further comprises one or more of an adipocyte, an adipocyte-like cell, or a engineered cell expressing one or more adipocyte-like features and/or a fibroblast, a fibroblast-like cell, or an engineered cell expressing one or more fibroblast-like features.
  12. A system according to claim 1, wherein the void space contains one or more of fat, flavoring agent, coloring agent, salt and preservative.
  13. A system according to claim 1, wherein the lumen of the hollow fiber contains one or more of fat, flavoring agent, coloring agent, salt, and preservative.
  14. A system according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge is removablely inserted into the housing.
  15. A system according to claim 1, wherein the component molecules of the porous wall of each edible hollow fiber are oriented essentially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the hollow fiber.
  16. A system according to claim 1, further configured such that the direction of fluid flow through the lumen of the edible hollow fiber is reversed during at least part of the culture period.
  17. A system according to claim 1, wherein the edible hollow fiber is at least partially soluble.

Description

Consumable tissue-like structure generated with muscle cells grown on edible hollow fibers Laboratory-grown meat or meat-like products, often referred to as "clean meat," are set to play a significant role in providing food for a growing population. However, efforts in this field have achieved only limited success. Part of the reason is that products generated with current technology lack, or barely resemble, the structure of minced meat-like materials, which at best must be combined with other ingredients to provide a meat-like structure and texture. To produce structured clean meat, scaffolding must be used. To be practical and cost-effective, the scaffolding must be edible and/or soluble and provide texture and structure in the final product that provides a texture reminiscent of real meat or natural meat (i.e., meat derived from animals). This means that the scaffolding must provide at least three qualities: 1) it is edible, 2) it provides a texture and texture similar to real meat, and 3) it is a culture environment suitable for myocytes or myocyte-like cells and other cell types to grow efficiently and form muscle structures similar to natural muscle (e.g., forming sarcotubules and achieving tissue-like cell density). Achieving each of these goals was a challenge in the relevant technological field. Since the achievement of any one of the three goals could act against one or both of the others, the achievement of all three goals in a single culture system has largely not been accomplished in the relevant technological field. The reasons for this are varied. The inventors will review some of these here. Although edible microcarriers have been attempted, they cannot achieve tissue-like cell density or provide meat-tissue texture or mouthfeel without additional processing steps and/or materials (see, for example, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0079238 (Marga)). Hydrogel tubes have been used. One advantage is that myocytes can form sarcotubules on hydrogel tubes. However, cell density is not sufficiently high, and the final macroscopic structure does not resemble natural meat. For example, additional processing is required for sarcotyl alignment (see reference [Qiang, Li, et al. , 2018 Biofabrication 10:025006]). Three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel matrices are widely known and commercially available. Unfortunately, this format is not well adapted to tissue-like cell densities. This is, at least in part, because vascularization/medium diffusion is limited (Bramfeldt, et al. , Curr Med Chem. 2010;17(33):3944-3967). Additionally, the structure provides an unnatural sponge-like texture. 3D printing has been undertaken by companies such as Redefine Meat, Ltd. (Israel Nes Ziona), and advancements have been made in terms of structure and cell density for assembling structured meat-like products on nonmeat substrates. However, this approach is in its final stages. Since most cell growth is completed in advance and the cells must be processed into 3D structures, excessive processing time and costs are added. Decellularized plant materials (e.g., celery and rhubarb) have been described as scaffolding materials (see reference [Gershlak, J., et al. , Biomaterials, 2017 May;125:13-22]). However, fluid management becomes a problem beyond the laboratory scale, making it difficult to scale any process using decellularized plant materials to production scale. Furthermore, the final structure reflects the plant material, resulting in unsatisfactory palate and texture for meat-like products. While decellularized plant materials appear to enable proper cell orientation and aid in the vascularization of cultured cells, expansion has proven to be a significant obstacle to overcome. Additionally, the palate may be more similar to plant materials than to natural meat. For example, see publication [ Decellularized Plant-based Scaffold for Guided Alignment of Myoblast Cells - Santiago Campuzano, et al. , 2020] and www.new-harvest.org/santiago_campuzano. Plant-based hollow fibers can be problematic in relation to providing edible products. Whole grain starch is edible but dissolves in cell culture media and is therefore unsuitable for cell culture or cell adhesion. Cellulose has been widely used in the filtration industry. While cellulose is recognized as a material within conventional foods, in membrane form, cellulose is typically chemically modified and behaves like plastic. This macroscopic behavior of cellulose makes it undesirable for consumption. Similarly, collagen-blended hollow fibers have been described. However, these products are not designed for human consumption or use in the clean meat industry (see below: WO2018162857 A1, Hollow Cellular Microfibre and Method for Producing Such a Hollow Cellular Microfibre) and may not be suitable for use in these fields. Furthermore, conventional edible scaffolds do not allow for the vascularization required to produce structured meat thicker than several hundred microns. As mentio