Hungary: The structure of the spinach leaf may be suitable for laboratory meat cultivation

The future of laboratory meat production may depend on the special structure of the spinach leaf. Overall, greener technology can be used to create a much more meat-like product, thanks to the structural properties of the leaf - read on hortidaily.com. Cell culture is able to survive if the medium and oxygen containing the nutrients needed for growth are available to it. Prior to this, the experts tried to create the basis of cell cultures by 3D printing fine structures made of gelatin and collagen. However, the delicate vascular system of the spinach leaves, evoking real muscle tissue, came up as an alternative. The researchers used a special procedure to create decellularized (that is, only the cell skeleton) plant tissue - by removing the contents of the cells. Bovine satellite cells placed in the leaf structure formed the basis of cell culture. It was observed that after one and then two weeks, the cells not only grew and proliferated, but proved to be 99% viable. In fact, ...