Lab News: Cell Mass Doubling Within 12 Hours
Great news from our labs: Through optimized conditions, our meat cells now reach daily growth rates of up to 400%. These high growth rates are sustained over a long time, allowing a single cell to produce several tons of cell mass within a month.
There is a global interest in using industrial cell proliferation as a sustainable, cruelty-free, and cost-effective source of raw materials. From our perspective, it is critically important to use unmodified cells, meaning cells without genetic or other manipulations. Therefore, our procedures are based on cells that can be obtained through gentle biopsies or methods such as ear tagging.
The basis for cell proliferation on an industrial scale is highly proliferative, animal cell lines. An important measure for this is the doubling time, which indicates how quickly the cells multiply. It turns out that it’s not necessarily the classic animal cells (cattle, pig, poultry) that need to be at the forefront.
For example, the rabbit cells we have isolated show an exceptionally short doubling time of about 12 hours.
Cell Proliferation Growth Curve of Rabbit
In addition to the high proliferation rate, our cells also exhibit properties of muscle cells, as demonstrated by immunofluorescence staining – perfect for the production of cultivated meat.
Fluorescence images of rabbit cells showing proliferation and muscle filaments. The proliferating cells are stained green (Ki67), muscle proteins in red (alphaSMA), and cell nuclei in blue (DAPI). Scale bar: 100 µM.
As powerful and standardizable cell lines are essential for industrial cell proliferation, we are continuously expanding our cell bank. Currently, about 50 cell lines from 25 different species are available, including not only our main livestock species but also fish, wildlife, and exotics.
With such a diverse selection of cells from various animals, completely new paths are possible, as Teresa Buck, Head of Cell Innovations at CellTec Systems explains: “Cultivated meat should not always be thought of as a replacement for beef. By combining different cell lines and various differentiations, it is possible to develop very diverse flavors and textures – for a unique taste of a new generation of meat. The meat of the future thus enables products in an entirely new dimension.”
As the first European system provider for industrial cell proliferation, CellTec Systems has the most modern equipment for research and development in industrial cell technology. We consider the complete path from cell isolation to the effective proliferation of adherent cells in our cyclic bioreactor.
For product, service, or consulting inquiries, further information, or interviews, the team at CellTec Systems is readily available.