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Self-Healing Scaffolding Technology with Strong, Reversible Interactions under Physiological Conditions for Engineering Marbled Cultured Meat.

Lam Tan Hao,Seunghyeon Lee,Dong Soo Hwang,Hyeonyeol Jeon,Jeyoung Park,Hyo Jeong Kim,D. Oh

Published 2025 in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

ABSTRACT

Cultured meat offers a sustainable alternative to animal farming, with the potential to reduce environmental impacts and improve food security. However, recapitulating natural meat marbling remains a significant challenge. This study presents a straightforward technology for achieving precise marbling patterns in large-scale cultured meat using self-healing hydrogels containing boronic acid-conjugated chitosan. Unlike conventional hydrogels, which require nonphysiological conditions for strong, reversible bonding, our system achieves robust reversible bonding at neutral pH through a unique mechanism: the nucleophilic groups of chitosan facilitate boronic acid-diol bond formation, exhibiting half the strength of a typical covalent bond, as demonstrated by nanomechanics analysis. The hydrogels form dual reversible networks of boronic acid-diol and hydrogen bonds, enabling self-healing and tunable stiffness. Biocompatibility studies confirm that they support the growth of mouse-derived cells and bovine-derived primary muscle cells. Each hydrogel variant optimizes mechanotransduction for the distinct requirements of fat or muscle cell culture and differentiation. This self-healing scaffolding technology enables the seamless assembly of muscle and fat monocultures into centimeter-thick meat with micrometer-scale marbling patterns, tailoring organoleptic properties and nutritional profiles without the need for meat glues or processing equipment.

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