Construction of Skeletal Muscle Tissue based on Edible Blood-Derived Components using a PDMS Substrate and 3D-Printed Anchors

Cultivated meat has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional livestock production, offering potential solutions to environmental, ethical, and food security challenges. However, achieving structured, steak-like cultivated meat remains a major hurdle, largely due to the reliance on extracellular matrix (ECM) materials such as collagen and fibrin for tissue formation, which may present challenges related to regulatory approval, cost, and ethical considerations. Developing edible scaffolds and media supplements that can support myocyte growth and tissue maturation is therefore essential for practical and commercially viable production of structured cultivated meat. In this study, we present a method to fabricate bovine skeletal muscle tissue using edible components derived from bovine blood: bovine serum (BS) and bovine plasma (BP). BS supports myocyte proliferation and differentiation, while BP serves as a scaffold to form cultured contractile bovine skeletal muscle tissue. This approach addresses the challenge of constructing structured cultivated meat without relying on non-edible ECM components. The resulting tissues exhibit aligned myotubes, contractility, and are suitable for sensory evaluation. We believe that the proposed method has potential to provide a practical and scalable strategy for the commercial development of structured, edible cultivated meat.