Never let me down: Optimizing performance of serum free culture medium for bovine satellite cells

Abstract

AbstractCultivated meat may be a more ethical, environmentally friendly, antibiotic-free meat alternative of the future. As of now, one of the main limiting factors for bringing cultivated meat to the market is the high cost of the cell culture medium. Here, we optimize B8/B9 medium - one of the well-established serum free, fully defined medium compositions available for purchase or for preparation in-house. We show several combinations of the growth factors/myokines/hormones, which were able to substantially increase bovine satellite cells’ proliferation rate, as well as treatment schemes which allow to use five to ten times lower concentrations of signaling molecules for the same effect. Additionally, we present two food grade low-price medium stabilizers, one of which exhibits superior stabilization of the B8 medium as compared to recombinant human serum albumin, and allows for its substitution, dropping the price for stabilization to approx. under 0.2% of that used in B9 medium.