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.

日本大阪大學的科學家日前在實驗室里成功3D打印出了和牛肉，科學家相信這一進展將有助于未來研制出被廣泛食用且可持續生產、酷似真肉的人造肉。

科學家采用和牛中提取的干細胞制作出了擁有和牛獨有的大理石花紋的人造肉。

通過分離牛肉細胞，科學家理清了肌肉、血管和脂肪的分布規律，然后用3D生物打印技術將這些牛肉組織做成一塊牛排的形狀，通過對細胞結構進行分層使得產品酷似真和牛肉。

研究人員認為，證實和牛排能被3D打印是邁向未來可持續生產類真肉人造肉的重大一步。因為3D打印牛排的源頭來自真肉，這也使其有別于Beyond Meat和Impossible Foods等公司生產的人造素食牛肉。

該項目的研究員之一松崎道哉在一份聲明中稱：“通過改進這項技術，我們不但有可能再造復雜的肉類結構，比如美麗的和牛肉花紋，還能對脂肪和肌肉成分進行微調。”

松崎道哉說，通過微調技術，未來顧客將能訂購按照自己的口味和健康狀況定制的人造肉，脂肪含量也可以隨心定制。

眾所周知，和牛肉非常昂貴，高級和牛肉的價格可高達每磅200美元（約合人民幣1292元），成年和牛每頭價格超過3萬美元。2019年，日本的和牛出口利潤達到了破紀錄的2.688億美元，相比2018年上升了20%。

盡管這可能是3D打印出的第一塊和牛肉，但并不是第一次有人嘗試用生物打印技術制作牛排。今年二月，以色列人造肉公司Aleph Farms和以色列理工學院生物醫學工程學院用真牛肉細胞聯合打印和培育出了一塊肉眼牛排。……