First 3D printed wagyu beef首款3D打印“和牛肉”

2021-11-24佚名

疯狂英语·新悦读 2021年12期

佚名

和牛肉号称“全世界最贵的牛肉”。日前，日本科学家用3D生物打印技术成功制造出世界上第一块3D打印“和牛肉”，它拥有独特的类大理石花纹，简直能够以假乱真。

Scientists based in Japan's Osaka University have found a way to 3D print wagyu beef(和牛肉)in a lab—a step they believe will one day help make widely available and sustainablyproduced 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 seen in wagyu beef that set it apart from other cuts of beef.

By isolating beef cells,the scientists organized how the muscles,blood vessels,and fat should be stacked(分布).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 plant-based options.

“By improving this technology,it will be possible to not only reproduce complex meat structures,such as the beautiful marbling of wagyu beef,but also to make subtle adjustments to the fat and muscle components(成分),” 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 ofTechnology—jointly bioprinted and cultivated a ribeye steak using real cow cells.