Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Thank you, I made it myself… the steak that is!

Imagine this… it’s Saturday night, friends are coming over for dinner and once again, you have forgotten to feed “Meaty” the test tube. Depressed, you wonder what on earth you are going to have for dinner…

While this predicament may not be on the menu anytime soon, the technology to grow meat in a test tube does exist. The ingredients it seems, involves using stem cells, specifically myoblasts - the precursor to muscle, placing them in a nutritious vat and allowing them to divide into millions of daughter cells. To provide support for the cells they are poured onto a collagen meshwork carrier, subjected to growth hormones and then placed into a bioreactor to grow. The proliferated myoblast cells fuse into tissue and are gently stretched in an attempt to simulate exercise, causing the cells to align and form myofibers.

Are there problems? Definitely. At present, scientists have only been able to grow thin sheets of tissue that are far removed from the structural integrity of the meat we enjoy today. The many types of cells required to truly emulate the taste and character of a really good steak, including adipose cells and blood vessels, seem to be the key ingredients lacking. Without capillaries feeding the cells they become necrotic and die. The problem is, no one has figured out how to grow blood vessels.

So it seems that until scientists sort out their beef with the beef, we, unlike any good chef, are entitled to blame the recipe.
Written by: Katherine Daley



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