ASGSB 1999 Annual Meeting Abstracts

IN VITRO PRODUCTION OF EDIBLE MUSCLE PROTEIN: STAGE I, FISH. M.A. Benjaminson, J.A. Gilchriest, and M. Lorenz. North Star Research and Department of Applied BioScience, Touro College, Bayshore, NY.

The objective of this research is to establish the feasibility and the methods of in vitro Muscle Protein Production Systems (MPPS). These MPPS’ function in the fabrication of surrogate muscle protein constructs. These constructs must be of sufficient quality to be acceptable as food products for Space travelers embarked on long voyages where re-supply is not an option. The Phase I tissue engineering research effort concentrated on successfully cultivating and manipulating the dorsal abdominal skeletal muscle of Carassius (goldfish). Both primary explants (CPE) and crude cell mixture (CCM) cultures of disaggregated satellite/fibroblast cells and dissociated muscle fibers were employed. The CCM was created by enzymatic digestion. In addition, two American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) fish fibroblastic cell lines were cultivated for the tissue engineering effort. CPE’s were grown and manipulated in co-culture with the CCM. Primary muscle explants were also grown in co-culture with ATCC fish fibroblast cell lines. The CCM formed a viscous aggregate of cells and matrix in culture and the cell/fibers adhered to the explants, increasing explant size over a seven day period by an average of 30%. Co-cultures of the ATCC fish fibroblast cells and primary explant formed extensive, continuous sheets, which tended to grow towards, attach to, and envelop the primary explant. Traumatically stimulated growth of the primary explant and myogenic differentiation of released satellite cells to form myotubes was observed by light microscopy. Tissue engineered primary explant cultures were harvested. The fish tissue’s odor and appearance was noted as resembling fresh dead fish filet. Cooked explants were judged to resemble marinated, fried, breaded fish. The feasibility of the MPPS concept was established, however, further experimentation is required. Future research efforts will include MPPS technology designed for in vitro production of edible fowl and beef. MPPS technology is designed to interdigitate with previous work on resource recovery systems for Space applications. (Acta Astronautica 43:329-348)

(Supported by NASA: SBIR Contract NAS9-99011)

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