Scientists based in Japan have successfully 3D printed a hunk of wagyu beef complete with marbling

岳伶俐

Scientists based in Japan’s Osaka University have found a way to 3D print wagyu beef in a lab—a step they believe will one day help make widely available and sustainably- produced cuts of cultured meat that closely resemble original products.

Using stem cells that they took from wagyu cows， the scientists set out to create a structure with the characteristic marbling （or sashi） seen in wagyu beef that sets it apart from other cuts of beef.

By isolating beef cells， the scientists organized how the muscles， blood vessels， and fat should be stacked. The researchers then shaped these tissues into the form of a steak using a technique called 3D bioprinting， where cell structures can be layered to resemble real tissues in living things.

The researchers believe that proving that a wagyu steak can be accurately 3D-printed could be a big step toward a sustainable future where cultured meat can be created that closely resembles existing products. Its origins from real meat also differentiate it from plantbased options， like those created by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

“By improving this technology， it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures， such as the beautiful marbling （sashi） of Wagyu beef but to also make subtle adjustments to the fat and muscle components，”Michiya Matsusaki， one of the project’s researchers， said in a statement.

Michiya Matsusaki said that with these adjustments， customers might one day be able to order a cultured cut of meat with the amount of fat they desire， tailor-made to their tastes and health concerns.

Wagyu beef is known to be extremely expensive， with high-grade wagyu fetching prices of up to $200 per pound and adult cows selling for more than $30， 000. In 2019， Japan’s wagyu exports raked in a record high of $268.8 million in profits， up 20% from 2018.

While this might be the first cut of wagyu beef ever to be 3D-printed， other attempts have been made to bioprint steaks. In February this year， Aleph Farms and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology—jointly bioprinted and cultivated a ribeye steak using real cow cells.

日本大阪大學的科学家日前在实验室里成功3D打印出了和牛肉，科学家相信这一进展将有助于未来研制出被广泛食用且可持续生产、酷似真肉的人造肉。

科学家采用和牛中提取的干细胞制作出了拥有和牛独有的大理石花纹的人造肉。

通过分离牛肉细胞，科学家理清了肌肉、血管和脂肪的分布规律，然后用3D生物打印技术将这些牛肉组织做成一块牛排的形状，通过对细胞结构进行分层使得产品酷似真和牛肉。

研究人员认为，证实和牛排能被3D打印是迈向未来可持续生产类真肉人造肉的重大一步。因为3D打印牛排的源头来自真肉，这也使其有别于Beyond Meat和Impossible Foods等公司生产的人造素食牛肉。

该项目的研究员之一松崎道哉在一份声明中称：“通过改进这项技术，我们不但有可能再造复杂的肉类结构，比如美丽的和牛肉花纹，还能对脂肪和肌肉成分进行微调。”

松崎道哉说，通过微调技术，未来顾客将能订购按照自己的口味和健康状况定制的人造肉，脂肪含量也可以随心定制。

众所周知，和牛肉非常昂贵，高级和牛肉的价格可高达每磅200美元（约合人民币1292元），成年和牛每头价格超过3万美元。2019年，日本的和牛出口利润达到了破纪录的2.688亿美元，相比2018年上升了20%。

尽管这可能是3D打印出的第一块和牛肉，但并不是第一次有人尝试用生物打印技术制作牛排。今年二月，以色列人造肉公司Aleph Farms和以色列理工学院生物医学工程学院用真牛肉细胞联合打印和培育出了一块肉眼牛排。