Scaffold engineering strategies for cultivated meat: Biomaterials and fabrication platforms

초록

This review presents an integrated and structured framework for designing edible scaffolds optimized for cultivated meat production. It synthesizes biological and materials-engineering insights to explain mechanical stiffness, pore structure, surface chemistry, crosslinking routes, and controlled degradation collectively regulate myogenesis and overall tissue architecture. Natural polymers, plant-derived proteins, and hybrid biomaterial systems are examined in terms of their biocompatibility, edibility, and tunability. Building on this material foundation, the review organizes major scaffold platforms as distinct technological strategies. Each platform is described by its structural logic, fabrication route, microenvironmental functions, and its ability to support volumetric muscle and adipose tissue formation. This comparative framework shows how specific scaffold types can be matched to different production goals, ranging from early-stage cell expansion to the formation of structured, texturized meat products. Beyond material selection, the review discusses broader engineering challenges essential for scalable manufacturing. These include serum-free media development, harmonized co-culture of muscle and fat lineages, biochemical and metabolic engineering of flavor-precursor pathways, and the establishment of robust, standardized cell lines suitable for long-term expansion. By integrating these biological and engineering considerations, this review proposes a systematic design framework for next-generation edible scaffolds and identifies research priorities needed to advance industrial-scale. © 2026 Elsevier B.V.

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