Nutritionally enhanced fibrous scaffolds by rolling droplet-interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (RD-IPC)

The challenge of producing protein in a more sustainable manner than what is currently afforded by meat from livestock has led to the advent of cell-based or cultured meat. One method of obtaining whole-cuts of meat would be to culture the relevant cells on fibrous scaffolds to obtain meat-like textures. In the present work, a novel process of rolling droplet interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (RD-IPC) is used to make aligned fibrous constructs that can be incorporated with nutritional components. Fiber is drawn by a falling droplet consisting of two oppositely charged polyelectrolytes that are continuously delivered by means of a syringe pump. The fibers are collected individually as they form and accumulate on a rotating collecting device to form planar constructs. Scaffolds incorporating gelatin, soybean flour, potato starch and garlic could be made by dispersing the respective powders into the polyelectrolyte solutions. Following the formation of the constructs, a heating step was found to improve their mechanical properties, in particular the potato starch-incorporated constructs, which exhibited higher tensile moduli due to a gelatinization process. Scaffolds imbued with gelatin and RGD moieties supported the adhesion, alignment, and differentiation of mouse myoblasts, while scaffolds incorporating gelatin alone sufficed for the differentiation of preadipocytes. RD-IPC provides for a scalable, continuous process that allows the incorporation of nutritional components into scaffolds possessing good mechanical and cell-adhesive properties. These fibrous scaffolds are constructed using edible polyelectrolyte components and aqueous solu-tions at relatively mild process conditions, underlining their promise for the nutritional enhancement of cultured meat.