Cultivating meat from stem cells rather than by raising animals is a promising solution to concerns about the negative externalities of meat production. For cultivated meat to fully mimic conventional meat's organoleptic and nutritional properties, innovations in scaffolding technology are required. Many scaffolding technologies are already developed for use in biomedical tissue engineering. However, cultivated meat production comes with a unique set of constraints related to the scale and cost of production as well as the necessary attributes of the final product, such as texture and food safety. This review discusses the properties of vertebrate skeletal muscle that will need to be replicated in a successful product and the current state of scaffolding innovation within the cultivated meat industry, highlighting promising scaffold materials and techniques that can be applied to cultivated meat development. Recommendations are provided for future research into scaffolds capable of supporting the growth of high‐quality meat while minimizing production costs. Although the development of appropriate scaffolds for cultivated meat is challenging, it is also tractable and provides novel opportunities to customize meat properties. Cultivating meat from cells is a promising solution to the environmental, ethical, health, and food‐security challenges associated with conventional meat production. Cultivated meat will require the development of scalable, low‐cost, and edible or biodegradable scaffolds to support cell growth. This review discusses the unique challenges of cultivated meat scaffolding and highlights promising materials and processing methods worthy of further investigation. Much of the deforestation of sensitive habitats such as the Amazon rainforest, which irreversibly threatens biodiversity and brings humans close to displaced wild animals, is due to livestock grazing or feed cropping. A 2020 report from the UN Environment Programme on preventing future pandemics noted that two of the seven major anthropogenic causes of zoonotic disease are increased global demand for animal protein products and unsustainable agriculture intensification, such as the rise of intensive animal agriculture.Large‐scale conventional animal agriculture is associated with a host of environmental and public health issues. Primarily due to the increase in close human–animal contacts from animal agriculture, destruction of wildlife habitats, and rising human population and global mobility, 75% of new infectious diseases in humans arise from animal sources (zoonotic).1 Inte2 equivalents, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock represent 14.5% of anthropogenic emissions. In addition to climate impacts, meat production comes at a high environmental cost in areas such as land and water use, primarily due to animal feed production and animal waste contamination. Public concerns around climate change appear to drive purchasing behavior at least to some extent, as increased media coverage of climate change is associated with decreased demand for beef. However, global meat consumption continues to rise steadily despite increased public awareness of climate change, suggesting that the desire to avoid climate impacts is, by itself, not sufficient to meaningfully curb meat consumption.When assessed according to COmissions.6 In a The first experimental demonstration of CM was reported in 2002, which showed that cultured fish cells could contribute to the growth of a goldfish muscle explant. The first reported tasting of CM occurred in 2013 with the much‐publicized hamburger produced by Dr. Mark Post's team. Today, a growing number of companies (at least 70 as of mid‐2021) are working to commercialize and scale CM. The first regulatory approval for cultivated chicken occurred in December 2020 in Singapore, with commercial sales following shortly thereafter.A possibly more pragmatic means of addressing the negative externalities of meat production is by changing the production process rather than requiring large‐scale consumer behavior change. Cultivated meat  is meat grown from animal stem cells, mimicking the process by which cells grow and divide in vivo to produce a product with the same nutritional and organoleptic properties as its conventional counterpart.14 The In addition, the LCA found that CM could reduce land use by 63–95%. Still, it does not account for the potential for carbon capture by the newly available land, e.g., by rewilding and ecosystem restoration. CM is not a “silver bullet” for climate concerns, but its potential synergies with other approaches such as clean energy and rewilding offer a promising opportunity to substantially reduce the climate impacts of our food system. The accompanying techno‐economic assessment (TEA) found that a commercial‐scale CM production process could compete on costs with some forms of conventional meat. However, further improvements must be made to reduce the costs of growth factors and proteins, develop better methods for high‐density cell culture, and create more efficient bioreactors.Two recent reports informed by empirical data from 15 companies involved in the CM supply chain model the possible costs and environmental impacts of commercial‐scale CM production. The life cycle assessment (LCA) found that CM could vastly outperform conventional meat with regard to resource utilization. At the same time, its climate impacts are highly dependent on the energy source used.19 In  The scaffold often plays a vital role in ensuring the efficient transport of oxygen, nutrients, and waste products to and from the cells, controlling the growing tissue's geometry and cell type distribution, and contributing structure to the final product. In addition, cells have been evolutionarily optimized to grow and function inside a 3D gel‐like microenvironment with specific biochemical and biophysical cues, governed by the biochemistry and mechanical properties of the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). A scaffold can help recapitulate the natural microenvironment of the cells, which is crucial for cell behavior because the ECM influences cell organization into tissues, cell–cell interactions, and cell–matrix interactions. On a 2D surface, most of the cell membrane either interacts with the stiff surface or is exposed to a liquid solution, generating a basal‐apical directionality. This geometry leaves only the perimeter of the cell membrane available for cell–cell interactions and allows the integrins that adhere to the surface to attach only at the bottom of the cell. In 3D culture, cell–cell and cell–matrix interactions can occur on the entire surface of the cell membrane. Exposure to high shear stress from the flowing cell culture media can have a negative effect on cell viability. Scaffolding of 3D cultures can reduce or regulate shear stress by a protective soft and elastic surrounding gel or by the porous scaffold wall architecture. Lastly, cells communicate using gradients, but these gradients are usually lost in 2D cultures due to media mixing, which affects cell motility and 3D organization. Growing cells in an appropriate 3D matrix will have important effects on their biology and behavior, which are likely to translate into a more in vivo‐like tissue structure and improved organoleptic properties. Scaffolds may also have substantial impacts on the scalability and cost‐competitiveness of CM by allowing for the transition of anchorage‐dependent cells to microcarrier‐based suspension cultures.A critical step in many existing and hypothetical bioprocesses is the seeding of cells on a 3D scaffold.23 TheIf whole‐cut CM is to be created in such a manner as to recapitulate the variety and arrangement of cell types  in genuine animal muscle tissue, the challenges of 3D tissue culture must be overcome in a scalable, cost‐effective, and food‐safe manner. It is also possible that postharvest processing could be used to create products with the desired taste and texture without 3D tissue culture. This review will focus on the challenges related to scaffolding for CM, drawing on literature from CM and adjacent disciplines such as biomedical tissue engineering.2To develop practical approaches for muscle tissue engineering, it is necessary to consider the structure of naturally occurring muscle tissue. For CM, understanding how muscle structure relates to meat's nutritional and organoleptic properties is particularly important.Vertebrates have three classes of muscle . Engineering meat products such as beef, chicken, pork, and fish is essentially skeletal muscle tissue engineering for each species. The structure and function of skeletal muscle tissue (hereafter muscle) are relatively well conserved across species. Therefore the following discussion applies to mammalian, avian, and fish muscle, except where otherwise indicated. This review limits its scope to muscle tissues from vertebrate species, though some of the materials and strategies discussed may also apply to other types of CM, such as shrimp, squid, and foie gras. Muscle fibers are organized into bundles called fascicles. Connective tissue is separated into endomysium, perimysium, and epimysium, which surround muscle fibers, fascicles, and entire muscles, respectively , which is surrounded by connective tissue, intramuscular fat, vasculature, and nerves. The main determinants of muscle texture and quality are the muscle fibers, fat, and connective tissues.29 Musy Figure.[29] Reproducing the nerves found in muscle is similarly unlikely to be necessary from an organoleptic standpoint but may contribute to muscle fiber maturation.Although the vasculature does not contribute substantially to organoleptic properties, its role in facilitating the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and waste will need to be recapitulated, albeit possibly using a system that is structured quite differently.32 Rep to recreate the nutritional and structural aspects of meat.The nutritional value of meat arises mainly from its role as a source of high‐quality protein containing all of the essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, and a variety of vitamins and minerals. Therefore, CM manufacturers should aim to recreate a tissue primarily composed (≈90% by volume) of mature muscle fibers surrounded by a small amount (≈10%) of fat and connective tissue29 to The following sections will discuss the components of muscle tissue likely to be most important to replicate in cultivated meat—muscle fibers, fat, and ECM—as well as common techniques for measuring mechanical properties relevant to meat quality.2.1 and 10–50 µm or 10–100 µm in diameter. Muscle fibers in fish are considerably shorter, typically only a few mm, with each fiber spanning the distance from one myoseptum to the next. The muscle fibers in both groups are mostly multinucleated, with as many as 100 nuclei. These cells are packed with cable‐like myofibrils of 1–3 µm diameter, which are bundles of contractile filaments composed of long chains of actin and myosin. These filaments are divided into functional contractile units called sarcomeres. The pattern of overlapping actin and myosin within the myofibrils gives muscle cells their characteristic striated appearance.A mature terrestrial muscle fiber is very long compared to most cells in the body, at 1–40 mm in length35 and However, it has been suggested that heme iron consumption may increase cancer risk, making it difficult to definitively label either red or white meat as the “healthier” option. Myoglobin is found within the muscle fibers, primarily in oxidative (slow‐twitch) fibers rather than glycolytic (fast‐twitch) fibers. Whereas in the muscles of terrestrial animals, the oxidative and glycolytic fibers tend to be somewhat evenly mixed, glycolytic fibers in fish show a strong spatial separation, typically appearing as a stripe along the animal's side.Red muscle tissue (as compared to white) is higher in myoglobin and therefore heme iron, making red muscle more nutritious as a source of bioavailable iron.29 How2.2 and contribute to tenderness through various mechanisms. Intramuscular fat is composed primarily of adipocytes, which are found embedded in the muscle tissue between both muscle fibers and fascicles. Intramuscular fat also includes structural lipids, phospholipids, and intracellular lipid droplets within muscle fibers. Fat is nutritionally important as a source of the lipophilic vitamins A, D, K, and E and essential lipids such as omega‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Overall, saturated fat content is typically higher in beef and pork Longissimus muscles than in fish and avian meats, which have higher percentages of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The content of protein, total fat, and saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids are shown for some example meat products in TableIntramuscular fats are a key determinant of meat juiciness, flavor, and nutrition29 and The average size of animal adipocytes is also heterogeneous and dependent on intracellular lipid accumulation. For instance, salmon adipocytes from the myosepta of white muscle have variable sizes though most have diameters of less than 50 µm, while bovine intramuscular adipocytes of “high‐marbling” breeds such as Japanese Black have average adipocyte diameters of >100 µm at 26 months of age.Intramuscular fat content varies according to factors including species, type of muscle, breed, and nutritional intake.37 The In Atlantic salmon, high numbers of adipocytes are located in the myosepta of red and white muscle. Additionally, intracellular lipid deposition has been reported within both types of muscle cells, though more apparently in red muscle.In fish such as rainbow trout and red seabream, lipid depots can be found in the myosepta of white muscle, between muscle fascicles, in red muscle, and subcutaneously, while Pacific herring and Pacific saury also accumulate lipids in these regions but possess more pronounced fat accumulation in red muscle and subcutaneous sites.41 In 2.3Figure It has been suggested that distinctions between endomysium, perimysium, and epimysium are relatively arbitrary based on microscopic observations, which reveal that distinct structural stratification may not be accurate. Even so, some consistent differences in the molecular makeup of the three connective tissue layers have been observed. The endomysium, which surrounds individual muscle fibers, is distinguished by a mechanically strong collagenous network. The mechanical strength arises from the network structure rather than the properties of individual collagen fibers. The majority of muscle's load‐bearing ability arises from this dense ECM and not the muscle fibers themselves, revealing the importance of a strong support structure for mature muscle cells. Therefore, recapitulating the mechanical properties of the ECM, whether by using mechanically similar scaffolding materials or by inducing cells to secrete their own ECM, will be necessary for CM to achieve the texture of conventional meat. Bodiou et al. estimate that muscle‐like stiffness is in the range of 2–12 kPa, which could be beneficial for muscle progenitor cell expansion, and that increasing the tissue stiffness could induce muscle differentiation. However, tissue is nonhomogenous, and stiffness variations of the different ECM components are important for cell behavior and final texture. Hydrogels with temporal tunable stiffness could show merit in that respect. Indeed, the ECM has profound effects on conventional meat's quality, both through its biological effects on muscle fibers in vivo as well as through changes during postmortem aging. Some key molecular components of the ECM—collagen, proteoglycans, and glycoproteins—will be discussed in detail in the following sections.Muscle fibers are embedded in a dense connective tissue composed of many ECM molecules, several of which interface directly with the muscle fibers Figure2. (PMEDSAH) fit into this category. In addition, polymers such as PLA, PLGA, PCL, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) can be currently considered for similar applications, and there is reason to believe that it might be possible to establish faster degrading scaffolds to use as tissue embedded structures in certain configurations if degradation products are nonharmful to cells and do not remain in the final CM product. However, this is currently a hypothesis that requires further analysis.Synthetic materials do not occur in nature but have distinct features that are advantageous for tissue engineering such as tunability, reproducibility, and being chemically defined.275 Ho electrospun fibers, porous scaffolds, hydrogels, films, and 3D printed structures. For instance, Kankala et al. have fabricated highly porous spheres composed of a PLGA–gelatin blend that supported adhesion, proliferation, and improved differentiation of C2C12 murine myoblasts. In another study, Shin et al. have described the production of nanofibers through electrospinning of PLGA modified with arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) motifs, which could support the proliferation and growth of C2C12 myoblasts. Chen et al. used 3D printing to fabricate PLGA scaffolds, which supported C2C12 myoblast growth at a faster rate than cells grown in 2D PLGA films and were able to facilitate myotube alignment and differentiation.PLGA is versatile and can be used in combination with other materials to produce microcarriers,276 el Aligned electrospun PLA also supported the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts.PLA can also form fibers through rotary jet spinning, and rat cardiomyocytes have been shown to spontaneously align on these fibers, supporting the fabrication of beating cardiac muscle tissue.198 Al In another study, hydrogels composed of a variety of materials, including PEG, were cast around a sacrificial 3D printed vascular‐like network  into a solid 3D structure, which was shown to be effective as a scaffold for MSCs.The aliphatic polyester PCL has gained interest for tissue engineering applications due to its biocompatibility and ability to form a variety of scaffold structures.280 Fo and PMEDSAH, an inexpensive methacrylate derivative that has been used to culture ESCs. GelMA , the amount of lactic acid produced by the CM industry at scale could be valorized as a sidestream to support PLA production, contributing to a more circular bioeconomy. Lactic acid or lactic acid‐producing bacteria are often added to or present in a variety of foods, including sausages, raw and cooked meat, sourdough, and dairy products. Lactic acid can be found in feta cheese at concentrations of 18.19 ± 0.27 g kg−1  and in cheddar at 18.80 ± 0.03 g kg−1 . The main barrier to use of PLGA and PLA as integrated scaffolds is likely to be the presence of incompletely degraded scaffold material in the final product. It is also possible that toxicity of breakdown products to the cells during culture could occur with more rapidly degradable forms of these materials.PLGA and PLA byproducts can be discharged from the human body at low concentrations, though their accumulation can have detrimental effects.279 La Lipase has been shown to degrade PCL in a dose‐dependent manner. Degradation products derived from PCL include hydroxycaproic acid, which is generated after PCL hydrolysis and can enter the Krebs cycle or be discarded through urine and does not appear to accumulate in tissues.PCL can take more than 10 months to fully degrade, although its degradation is mediated by multiple mechanisms and can be accelerated by modifications in pH or through enzymatic dissociation.290 Li−1 of food (or 0.1–7%), depending on the food category, though the food categories in which PEG is approved are those typically consumed in small quantities (such as chewing gum or sweeteners), so it remains unclear whether PEG would pose a food safety concern at the concentrations it might be present in a scaffold.PEG is approved as a food additive with a maximum allowed level of 1–70 g kgcategory,293 thThe use of PLGA, PLA, PCL, and PEG in fully degradable scaffolds or those that remain in the product is currently not likely to be feasible. With further innovations, it may be possible to speed up degradation rates of these materials sufficiently that they could be used (see Section 5.2Self‐assembling peptides (SAPs) have been investigated for use as scaffolds for tissue engineering and as materials for 3D bioprinting due to their versatility and ability to mimic ECM properties.294 with the goal of enabling continuous cell production without the need for batch harvest. This may be a promising strategy for the proliferation stage of CM production, and this application is being further developed by CellulaREvolution.A combination of two SAPs, one containing an RGD adhesion motif  that supported seeding of bone marrow‐derived MSCs (BM‐MSCs). This scaffold allowed in vivo revascularization of cardiac tissue after myocardial infarction in rats, higher engraftment capacity of BM‐MSCs, and decreased apoptotic events. Furthermore, Zhou et al. have incorporated transforming growth factor‐beta (TGF‐β) into RADA16 scaffolds seeded with BM‐MSCs, which allowed controlled release of the factor into the cellular environment and improved proliferation capacity. Incorporation of costly growth factors into scaffolds can support cost reduction efforts by CM companies by localizing them to where they are needed. Incorporation of different growth factors or differentiation triggers in different regions of the scaffold would also enable spatial heterogeneity when guiding cell fate, thus allowing manufacturers to designate patterning such as meat muscle/fat marbling.Another SAP with interesting properties for tissue engineering applications is RADA16 , a short protein sequence composed of 16 amino acid residues in periodical repetitions that can form stable hydrogels with nanofibrous structures when in contact with a saline solution.237 RA SAPs’ application in additive manufacturing has also shown promising results for printing constructs containing fibroblasts and BM‐MSCs.RADA16 and methylcellulose have been used as a bioink to print scaffolds embedded with human or murine MSCs, and the 3D‐printed construct containing murine MSCs was shown to support adipogenic differentiation and lipid accumulation following medium induction.298 SA These peptides could self‐assemble into nanofibrous hydrogel matrices in salted water, and cell attachment and proliferation rates were largely improved in functionalized VEVK9 scaffolds, while VEVK12 was less efficient in allowing fibroblast proliferation even when containing cell adhesion domains.Kumada et al. assessed the capacity of two designer SAPs composed of repeating units of amino acids valine–glutamate–valine–lysine, VEVKVEVKV (VEVK9) and VEVKVEVKVEVK (VEVK12), to support the adhesion and growth of fibroblasts upon modification with various adhesion motifs and compare them with nonfunctionalized VEVK9 or VEVK12.239 Th Cell‐free systems provide additional opportunities in peptide manufacturing without relying on microbial hosts that could be assessed for the production of SAPs.The application of SAPs in CM has not yet been addressed in published studies and could be hindered by high manufacturing costs under conventional strategies, such as peptide synthesis. Potential approaches that could be evaluated to reduce the hurdles of SAP production for CM scaffolding include optimizing current techniques and using recombinant organisms.300 Ce5.3 Although animal‐derived ECM proteins are a poor choice for use in CM, these same components could be produced using microbial fermentation, plant molecular farming, or cell‐free systems, and mixed in defined ratios, with the formula tailored to the needs of the cell type(s) in question and the desired outcomes. The final CM product will contain both whatever scaffold material is not degraded during the culture period as well as additional ECM components and structures secreted by the cells, in effect bootstrapping some of the complexity of the natural ECM. Beyond its applicability to CM, such ECM substitutes would improve reproducibility in other fields that currently rely on Matrigel.Ultimately, the goal of a scaffold is to mimic relevant properties of the ECM, including its mechanical strength and flexibility, its effects on cell behavior, and—in the case of CM—its nutrient composition. The complexity of the ECM can likely be substituted by simpler scaffolding structures containing one or more of the key structural proteins, growth factors, transcription factors, and cytokines to stimulate normal cell behavior and ECM secretion.275 Al Collagen‐containing scaffolds include microcarriers, porous scaffolds, hydrogels, and films. Several bioprinting‐based strategies have also utilized collagen. In addition, collagen I has been shown to interact with and serve as a slow‐release reservoir for bFGF. All collagens share a triple‐helix structure but differ in amino acid sequence and overall organization. Multiple collagen molecules are often organized into fibrils, especially in connective tissues, though other structures are also common. While collagen hydrogels do not inherently feature the sort of well‐ordered structure that would be necessary for mimicking muscle tissue, anisotropy can be introduced simply by clamping the gels along a single axis while letting them freely contract along the other one or two axes. This is discussed further in Section The collagens are a large and diverse family of proteins that make up the bulk of the mammalian ECM and have been extensively investigated as a biomaterial. Collagen has several advantages relevant to tissue engineering, including its mechanical strength, its adaptability to different applications based on the type(s) of collagen used and their post‐translational modifications, and its ability to promote adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of a wide variety of cell types.303 Co Similarly, salmon gelatin was added to scaffolds composed of alginate and agarose with glycerol as a plasticizer, and the resulting hydrogel was freeze‐dried to create a porous scaffold. The resulting scaffold exhibited the mechanical properties of the plant‐based components and the cell adhesive properties of the gelatin and thereby was able to support adhesion, viability, and proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts over 72 h of culture. Gelatin has also been successfully used as a scaffold for engineered adipose tissue, with pores and channels both formed by dissolving sacrificial structures constructed from alginate. Costantini et al. have shown that GelMA hydrogels can support the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts and differentiation into myotubes. GelMA hydrogels composed of fish gelatin have also been reported to provide an adequate environment for NIH3T3 embryonic fibroblasts, supporting the adhesion and proliferation of these cells for five days. Patterned GelMA fibers obtained using micromolding have been shown to sustain C2C12 myoblast viability similarly to unpatterned fibers, though myoblast alignment is significantly improved on patterned GelMA fibers. Cells grown on patterned GelMA fibers exhibited increased expression of myogenic markers of myotube formation, including myosin heavy chain (MHC) and sarcomeric actin. GelMA has also been used as a bioink component, with C2C12 myoblasts in the printed constructs capable of surviving over several weeks and differentiating. Because gelatin and GelMA share many of the same advantages, and the slower degradation rate of GelMA could be a disadvantage rather than an advantage in the context of CM, animal‐free forms of gelatin are likely to be preferable to GelMA for use in CM scaffolds.Collagen can also be used for scaffolding in its partially hydrolyzed form, i.e., as gelatin or as partially hydrolyzed and methacrylated GelMA. Fibrous scaffolds produced by immersion rotary jet spinning of porcine gelatin have been successfully used to grow rabbit myoblasts and bovine smooth muscle cells, resulting in final products with a reasonably well‐aligned structure, although texture profile analysis revealed some differences from conventional meat.59 Sim opening the door for collagen or gelatin as a viable scaffold material for CM. Certain bacterial species express proteins with collagen‐like sequences and properties. A collagen‐like protein expressed by Streptococcus pyogenes showed good compatibility with cultured human and murine cells. Whereas mammalian collagens contain hydroxyproline and would therefore need to be coexpressed with enzymes for post‐translational modification if expressed in recombinant systems, these bacterial collagen‐like sequences do not suffer from this limitation. Furthermore, bacterial collagen‐like proteins may be functionalized by the addition of binding motifs from mammalian ECM proteins to tune their adhesive properties toward specific cell types. By introducing a silk consensus sequence into the gene for the bacterial collagen‐like protein Scl2, hybrid Scl2‐silk scaffolds were produced that, when modified with fibronectin‐binding sites, could support the proliferation of human MSCs to a similar degree as collagen I. Integrin binding sites were also effective at supporting cell adhesion and proliferation, though to a lesser extent.While tissue engineering research has largely relied on animal‐derived collagen, animal‐free collagens have been successfully produced in plants, bacteria, and yeast,81 opeα‐actinin staining, compared to scaffolds composed of a mixture of fibrin and Matrigel. Hydrogels of fibrin alone have been investigated for use as CM scaffolds. Like collagen, fibrin can support the growth of constructs with visibly aligned myotubes when anchored between two fixed points. Fibrin has also been used as a bioink component for CM, and in another study, cell‐laden fibrin gels were cast around 3D printed sacrificial channels to create perfusable constructs.A recent study found that collagen was less able to support the formation of contractile muscle tissue as well as less effective at promoting myotube maturation, as assessed by Matrigel.119 Hy Human ESCs proliferated more efficiently in agitated culture on microcarriers coated with positively‐charged poly‐l‐lysine and either vitronectin or laminin, relative to those coated with poly‐l‐lysine, vitronectin, or laminin alone, suggesting that the function of laminins in supporting cell adhesion and proliferation may be enhanced by combining them with other compounds.Laminins, a major component of the basal lamina, have also been investigated for their potential to support cell attachment, growth, and differentiation, with certain laminin isoforms showing particular potential. Due to the differences in function between laminin isoforms and the difficulty of producing pure laminins from animal or animal cell culture sources, methods for recombinant laminin production have been developed.312 Huα, β, and γ subunits and are often named according to their constituent chains. For example, laminin 421 refers to the laminin composed of α4β2γ1 subunits. Compared to gelatin, Matrigel, and a variety of laminin isoforms including the commonly used laminin 111, laminin 521 showed the most consistent ability to support human and mouse myoblast proliferation and differentiation, including differentiation following multiple passages. While not investigated to the same extent as laminin 521, laminin 511 was effective at supporting short‐term proliferation and differentiation of mouse satellite cells. In another study, laminin 511 was able to support the long‐term proliferation of mouse ESCs and expression of pluripotency markers, whereas laminins 111, 332, and 411, Matrigel, gelatin, and poly‐d‐lysine led to either premature differentiation or cell death. These results together point to the laminins containing the α5 chain as promising scaffolds for muscle tissue engineering, including for CM. Specific laminin isoforms are associated with different states of the muscle stem cell niche. Changes are observed between embryonic and adult muscle as well as between regenerative and dystrophic states, and the primarily embryonic α1 and α5 chains are upregulated during regeneration. In addition to some laminins being more amenable to stem cell proliferation, it may be the case that the best laminin isoform for use in a CM scaffold will depend on the origin of the cells or the desired end product. Caution is also warranted when translating findings from mouse studies to agriculturally‐relevant species since there might be important differences in the utilization of some isoforms. Interestingly, long‐term culture on various laminins or Matrigel led to differences in expression of integrins, suggesting a possible mechanism by which the substrate might influence cells’ later propensity for adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation under different culture conditions.Laminins are trimers with subunits.314 Co This method allowed for the creation of heterogeneous constructs made up of multiple distinct layers of different cell types or labeled cells and furthermore led to the development of fine capillary‐like structures when a layer of endothelial cells was included in the construct. In a later study, the technique was successfully applied to C2C12 myoblasts. Differentiation was initially impaired in thick constructs, but this was rescued by the application of a Rho kinase inhibitor to the extent that coated and inhibitor‐treated cells formed tissue constructs that were both thicker and more fully differentiated than noncoated controls.A combination of gelatin and fibronectin has been used in the “cell accumulation technique” in which cells are coated in a thin layer of ECM proteins and then self‐assembled into a tissue‐like structure, obviating the need for a preassembled scaffold, at least in applications where only a thin construct is required.319 Th and, as mentioned above for laminin, showed better performance when combined with positively charged poly‐l‐lysine. Vitronectin surfaces patterned using photolithography were capable of supporting the attachment of C2C12 myoblasts and fusion into myotubes. Interestingly, when PGA, PLGA, or collagen‐based scaffolds were incubated in serum‐containing medium, vitronectin and, to a lesser extent, fibronectin from the serum adsorbed onto the scaffolds and mediated adhesion of smooth muscle cells via interaction with integrin receptors. This suggests that recombinant vitronectin and/or fibronectin, either added directly to the scaffold or included in the culture media, might be effective in maintaining strong adhesion of cells to scaffolds under serum‐free conditions.The ECM protein vitronectin has shown some promise as a substrate for growth of human ESCs in 2D culture as well as on microcarriers320 an5.4 In some cases, it is possible to take advantage of the natural 3D structure of such materials, such as by decellularization of plant tissues. Plant tissues may be decellularized by detergent‐based (SDS followed by Triton X‐1000) or detergent‐free (heated bleach solution) methods, with some optimization needed to adapt each method to a new species. Because plant tissues naturally feature vasculature and porous structures, the use of decellularized plants may facilitate oxygen and nutrient transport. Plant materials that have undergone some minimal processing steps, including those commonly used in the food industry, may also provide useful structural features. More extensive purification and processing using methods such as electrospinning, which is commonly used for biomedical applications, may also be applied to plant‐ and fungus‐derived materials.Promising approaches for scaffolding materials also include those derived from plants or fungi. The use of plant‐based proteins as biomedical tissue engineering scaffolds has been thoroughly reviewed elsewhere.322 In Spinach leaves have been tested for their utility as scaffolds for CM and were able to support bovine satellite cell survival over a 14‐day culture period, differentiation of some cells, and strong directional alignment in some samples, all without functionalization , the presence of an intact vasculature raises the possibility that decellularized leaves could be incorporated into a larger perfusable construct.Spinach has been investigated for its potential as a scaffold due to its wide availability, dense vascularization, and wide petiole .324 Sp] Figure . Spinach Indeed, C2C12 myoblasts adhered well to decellularized celery and showed strong alignment in the direction of the vascular bundles. This was achieved without biofunctionalization of the scaffold, which the authors attribute to the physical cues provided by the highly anisotropic plant tissue or the presence of adhesive proteins in the FBS, but it was not ruled out that biofunctionalization would have improved the performance of decellularized celery as a scaffold. Similar results have recently been reported using both decellularized green onion bulbs and decellularized grass.Campuzano et al. identified celery as a promising candidate for use as a decellularized plant scaffold based on its strong anisotropy and the presence of optimally sized pores for promoting myoblast alignment.125 In attachment and proliferation of iPSCs and differentiation into bone tissue; and adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of preadipocytes. In addition, apple‐based scaffolds could be combined with temporary or permanent hydrogels derived from gelatin or collagen, which was suggested as a strategy for increasing initial cell contact with the scaffold by increasing the viscosity of the solution and for delivery of biochemical cues to the construct.Decellularized apples have been shown to support attachment and survival of C2C12 myoblasts over a culture period of two weeks;240 at MSCs and dermal fibroblasts grew well on decellularized parsley stems that were either mineralized or functionalized with an ECM adhesion motif, whereas other plant tissues supported short‐term growth only. Orchid pseudobulbs supported long‐term growth for fibroblasts but not MSCs, suggesting some level of species and cell type specificity.Anthurium magnificum‐based scaffolds also supported the attachment of endothelial cells, although long‐term culture was not assessed. Fibroblasts showed a tendency to orient themselves according to the topography of the plant scaffold, with the strength of this effect varying according to scaffold species. For the purposes of designing scaffolds for CM, there is a great deal that can be learned from such studies on cells from human, mouse, and other species. However, additional research is required to test the applicability of these scaffolds in agriculturally relevant species and optimize their properties for compatibility with the desired cells.Fontana et al. tested a wide array of decellularized plant species for their compatibility with human cells.328 MS and could also potentially be used as scaffolds for CM. The use of fermented bacterial nanocellulose as scaffolding for CM is being addressed by Cass Materials, based on promising early tests indicating that muscle cells could adhere to the highly porous scaffolds and form fibers. The company is developing large  scaffolds as well as porous microcarriers tailored to the CM industry. In addition, use of decellularized green algae as tissue engineering scaffolds was recently demonstrated. Most of the cellulose‐based scaffolds described above exhibited a porous structure , suggesting that some cellulose‐based scaffolds may be more prone to degradation than others. Therefore, if the sensory effects of cellulose scaffolds on the final meat product are undesirable, it may be possible to select cellulose‐based scaffolds capable of mostly or completely degrading over the course of the cultivation period.A key consideration for the use of cellulose‐based scaffolds, whether in the form of decellularized plants or otherwise, will be the effects of the scaffold on the organoleptic and nutritional properties of the final product. Bacterial cellulose‐based scaffolds are generally assumed by biomedical tissue engineers to be nondegradable due to the lack of cellulase in humans and other mammals; consistent with this, degradation of bacterial cellulose scaffolds implanted into rats was minimal over 16 weeks.157 Sc and soda bread have been investigated as scaffolds for CM, with promising early results. Plant‐derived materials have also been investigated for tissue engineering applications in more processed forms. For example, rotary jet spun fibers formed from a combination of cellulose acetate and soy protein hydrolysate were able to support the adhesion and proliferation of human fibroblasts.Existing methods for processing plant material into human food yield porous structures that may be conducive to cell growth. As discussed in Section 123 an and furthermore have been used to culture bovine adipogenic precursors. Alginate has also shown promise as a bioink for 3D printing, including for tissue‐engineered constructs containing adipocytes and C2C12 myoblasts. Alginate may also be useful for supporting large‐scale proliferation; for example, alginate beads have been tested as microcarriers and as microspheres in which cells may be encapsulated. Because alginate hydrogels depend on the presence of calcium ions, the gelation process can be reversed simply by the addition of a calcium chelator, a property that Contessi Negrini et al. took advantage of to create pores and channels from sacrificial alginate‐based structures in a gelatin scaffold. Although alginate suffers from certain limitations such as a lack of cell adhesiveness when unmodified, other properties such as its reversible gelation, tunable mechanical properties, and ease of being formed into different geometries make it a potentially promising candidate, especially if combined with other materials with complementary properties. The use of partially oxidized alginate may be a viable strategy to accelerate its degradation. The tendency of alginate to form soft hydrogels makes it particularly suited for use with adipogenic cells, though it is possible by changing the calcium concentration to produce alginate hydrogels with sufficient stiffness to support myogenic differentiation as well.Alginate, a polysaccharide derived from brown algae, may also be a promising scaffolding material for CM. Alginate‐derived tubes have been shown to support high cell density and growth rates of pluripotent stem cells and to be compatible with differentiation protocols232 an In fact, the startup Excell, which was spun out of sustainable biomaterials company Ecovative Design, produces fungal mycelium‐based scaffolds for use in the CM industry, and Ecovative Design has filed a patent for the use of mycelial scaffolds for both CM and biomedical applications. The air pores formed by Armillaria luteobubalina have been shown to conduct oxygen and could serve the same function in the context of a scaffold. Freeze‐dried mycelial mats derived from Aspergillus have been shown to support adhesion and proliferation of human keratinocytes with superior performance compared to 2D culture. Fungal hemolysins present in the scaffold led to significant hemolysis of red blood cells but could be removed by treatment with β‐mercaptoethanol. Mycelia have also been identified as a promising category of candidates for use in wound care due to their similarities to native mammalian ECM and favorable oxygen transport properties, both of which are important features for CM scaffolds.Like plants, certain fungal species have structural features that might make them desirable as scaffolds for CM.152 In Fungal chitosan sponges created by a similar directional freezing technique were able to support adhesion of Drosophila muscle progenitors as well as differentiation of a small percentage of cells, and in some cases, muscle fibers were aligned to the pores of the scaffold. Membranes composed of one part chitosan to two parts of the plant‐derived polysaccharide pectin supported adhesion and proliferation of human adipose‐derived stem cells, whereas those made from a five‐to‐one ratio showed little to no growth over the 7‐day culture period. Because chitosan supports cell adhesion without the need for functionalization, can form scaffolds with a range of mechanical properties compatible with those needed for the growth of myofibers and other meat‐relevant cells (reported Young's moduli of 4–125 kPa and 2–5 kPa), and is already used in edible coatings in the food industry, it should be considered a promising material for CM scaffolding and worthy of further research. Fungal‐derived scaffolds might also have beneficial effects beyond their role as a support structure. For example, certain polysaccharide fractions from Grifola frondosa were shown to stimulate both proliferation and collagen synthesis when added to cultured mouse fibroblasts. In addition, cultures of Lentinus edodes have been shown to produce a heat‐stable compound with antibacterial activity.Chitosan is a polymer found in the skeletons and shells of insects and crustaceans and is also produced by certain fungi. Directional freezing of crustacean‐derived chitosan forms a structure featuring elongated pores capable of supporting adherence and differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts, with the final myotube diameter dependent on the initial chitosan concentration.274 Fu6While large‐scale cultivation of mammalian cells is routinely performed in the biopharmaceutical and cell therapeutic industries, CM faces the additional challenge of producing a complex, intact tissue as the final product rather than a cell slurry or a secreted product. This section will discuss specific considerations that arise as a result of this focus on large, complex tissues.6.1 textured vegetable proteins, and gelatin. By contrast, other materials’ ability to support cell adhesion can be improved through biochemical enhancements, such as for plant‐sourced materials such as alginate and synthetic polymers like PCL and PLGA. Since these materials possess a suite of additional benefits that make them promising candidates for CM applications, such as cell compatibility and desirable mechanical properties, improving cell anchorage is essential to ensure their applicability as scaffold components. A variety of strategies have been described that could improve cell adhesion to such surfaces, many of which are based on functionalization with adhesion motifs identified in ECM proteins. The following sections will discuss promising adhesion motifs, cost and regulatory considerations related to the use of such motifs, and nonpeptide‐based strategies for improving adhesion.Some scaffold materials are inherently functional and do not require further modification for cell attachment, including silk fibroin,338 te6.1.1 Accordingly, RGD peptides can be added to scaffolds to promote the adhesion of multiple cell types relevant for CM applications. Approaches for scaffold functionalization with RGD may vary according to the type of scaffold and include using carbodiimide chemistry or mixing functional motifs with the scaffold materials. There should be careful consideration of scaffold functionalization methods, as some chemical conjugation techniques could potentially introduce harsh reagents or chemical modifications that should be assessed from a food safety standpoint.Functionalizing scaffolds is usually performed by cross‐linking a material with molecular moieties that cell membrane‐associated proteins can recognize and bind to. One such alteration is the addition of arginyl–glycyl–aspartic acid (RGD) motifs. This tripeptide is found in ECM proteins such as fibronectin and is a major binding site for transmembrane integrins.339 Ac In this report, an increase in RGD density was associated with higher cell proliferation and differentiation rates. In addition, modifying PLGA scaffolds with RGD has allowed significant improvements in C2C12 myoblast cell area as well as myoblast fusion and myotube maturation index. In this study, staining of late differentiation marker MHC was only apparent in RGD‐containing scaffolds, and the addition of graphene oxide further improved myogenic differentiation capacity. RGD motifs have also been incorporated into SAPs to enhance cell adhesion. Moreover, research from Chandler et al. using 3T3‐L1 preadipocytes revealed an increase in average cell number and total cell area in RGD‐modified alginate scaffolds compared to controls.Alginate is an example of a scaffold material that can be modified with RGD motifs, and it has been shown that alginate hydrogels containing RGD can facilitate the adhesion of C2C12 myoblasts to the scaffold.340 In6.1.2 Similar improvements in functionality have been observed when adding CBD–RGD to alginate scaffolds, which promote the chondrogenesis of MSCs. CBDs can be found in plant enzymatic complexes that take part in cellulose degradation and in exposing the catalytic motifs of cellulosic substrates. Therefore, CBDs could be investigated for their application in improving the functionalization of plant scaffolds by combining these domains with mammalian cell adhesion motifs.Adhesion motifs such as RGD can also be combined with cellulose‐binding domains (CBDs) to increase the functionality of certain scaffold materials. For instance, CBD–RGD complexes can improve the attachment and viability of human microvascular endothelial cells and murine embryonic fibroblasts when added to bacterial cellulose scaffolds.342 Si6.1.3 For cultures of embryonic stem cell‐derived MSCs, the addition of PHSRN domains to culture plates coated with fibronectin–gelatin mixtures increased cell proliferation compared with coatings comprised of fibronectin, gelatin, or a combination of both. The authors of this study also reported substantially lower cell clustering in fibronectin–gelatin plates with PHSRN motifs after seven days of culture.Other peptide moieties have also been shown to improve the adhesive properties of scaffold materials, such as proline–histidine–serine–arginine–asparagine sequences (PHSRN), which are also present in fibronectin. A recent report demonstrated that pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs and ESCs) exhibit higher adhesion rates to culture plates with PHSRN and RGD‐containing (GRGDSP) motifs combined than to plates coated with only one of these motifs or with Matrigel.345 Fo6.1.4α2β1 (CD49b). Adding GFOGER peptides to hydrogels has been shown to improve MSC adhesion with similar strength as RGD motifs.Another peptide sequence that can be used to improve cell adhesion to scaffolds is glycine–phenylalanine–hydroxyproline–glycine–glutamic acid–arginine (GFOGER). This motif is present in collagen molecules and targets integrins such as D motifs.3476.1.5 Modifying peptide‐based scaffolds with IKVAV appears to be particularly useful for adequate fibroblast attachment. In this report, a similar improvement in fibroblast adhesion to scaffolds based on self‐assembling peptides was observed upon modification with tyrosine–isoleucine–glycine–serine–arginine (YIGSR), which is another laminin‐derived cell adhesion domain. Furthermore, combining the proline–valine–glycine–leucine–isoleucine–glycine (PVGLIG) sequence—a cleavage site of MMP‐2—with two RGD motifs was reported to potentiate fibroblast migration through the scaffold. Grooved PLGA scaffolds containing YIGSR or RGD peptides grafted with poly‐l‐lysine have also been reported to improve C2C12 myoblast proliferation and differentiation compared to PLGA surfaces devoid of biochemical cues.Modifying scaffolds with laminin‐derived domains is another promising strategy for improving the cell‐adhesive properties of certain materials. For instance, adding the isoleucine–lysine–valine–alanine–valine sequence (IKVAV) to 3% hyaluronic acid hydrogels seeded with mouse myogenic progenitors has been shown to promote cell adhesion and spreading throughout the scaffold as well as upregulation of myogenic factors MyoD1 and Pax7.348 Mo6.1.6Overall, functionalizing materials with the right ECM motifs allows the adhesion of a plurality of cell types relevant for CM applications to materials that otherwise do not allow adequate cell anchorage. However, peptide synthesis could increase production costs, thereby hindering the application of cell adhesion motifs in CM scaffolds. Therefore, the cost‐efficiency, scalability, and efficacy of adding adhesion domains to scaffolds should be further analyzed for application in CM. Therefore, companies and researchers should aim to select food‐grade materials that already contain one or more of these adhesion‐promoting peptide sequences when selecting scaffold material candidates to minimize the potential for regulatory hurdles. One approach for including cell adhesion motifs in scaffolds was described in Modern Meadow's patent, where cardosin A was cross‐linked with pectin because cardosin A contains RGD domains. Cardosin A is an aspartic protease that can be extracted from the cardoon Cynara cardunculus and has been used for cheese‐making due to its milk clotting properties. Therefore, investigating plant‐derived peptides already used for food applications that contain amino acid sequences analogous to vertebrate and mammalian cell adhesion domains could be a cost‐effective approach to include these motifs in scaffolds and improve their functionality.It is noteworthy that the use of RGD peptides in food products is yet to be approved.44 The6.1.7 Because the metal oxides are nonedible, scaffolds containing these coatings can be used only as temporary supports during the proliferation phase and will not be present in the final CM product. The stiffness, roughness, and wettability of the culture surface can also influence cell adhesion, providing additional opportunities for CM producers to tune the adhesive properties of their scaffolding materials.Cellivate Technologies has developed a novel cell adhesion chemistry for tissue culture, glass, and microcarrier coatings composed of various combinations of metal oxides with ≈5–100 nm coating thickness.352 Be6.2 In addition to the direct effects of fiber alignment on perceptions of texture, alignment also serves as a cue that influences muscle cell differentiation, maturation, and gene expression, though some studies have reported successful alignment of cells without increases in differentiation or strong differentiation without alignment. Fully mature muscle fibers with the proper amounts of actin, myosin, and myoglobin will be necessary to fully recapitulate the flavor, texture, color, and nutritional content of conventional meat.Muscle fibers in vivo are typically found in a regularly aligned pattern, and this alignment contributes to the distinctive textural properties of meat.29 In  but is also often simply confirmed visually. Differentiation and maturation may be assessed or quantified using a wide variety of metrics, including cellular aspect ratio, percentage of myotubes meeting a certain threshold for the number of nuclei contained, myotube length or diameter, or presence of marker genes. Commonly measured markers include myoD, myosin heavy chain, alpha‐sarcomeric actin, laminin, desmin, or myogenin, which may be assessed according to expression level, area, or striation pattern.Alignment of cells on a scaffold can be confirmed by measuring the angle of orientation of each cell and reporting the percentage of cells oriented within a certain number of degrees relative to either the average alignment or the axis of alignment of the scaffold,252 buResearchers have successfully induced muscle fiber alignment using a variety of strategies, including the use of anisotropic 3D scaffolds or 2D substrates, controlling the position of cells at the start of the culture period using additive manufacturing or acoustic cues, and the use of in vivo‐like cues such as mechanical stretch or electrical stimulation. These methods will be discussed in detail in the following sections.6.2.1 A comparison of human muscle cells cultured on aligned versus randomly oriented electrospun fibers revealed that myotubes in the aligned condition not only mirrored the alignment of the scaffold but were also twice as long after seven days in differentiation media. The length of the scaffold fibers is also important; another study reported that short (≈20 µm) fibers promoted the formation of spherical aggregates, whereas longer fibers were able to produce well‐aligned tissues, especially if the scaffold fibers were chemically cross‐linked. Anisotropy can also be introduced into materials by directional freezing. Certain plant tissues—such as parsley stems, celery, green onion bulbs, spinach leaves, and grass—have intrinsically anisotropic features and can induce alignment of cultured muscle cells when used as decellularized scaffolds. Hollow microfibers produced using microfluidic methods have also successfully been used to culture myocytes and cardiomyocytes and provide the necessary cues to induce cellular alignment along the long axis of the tube.Muscle cells can be induced to align by the use of anisotropic biomaterials. For example, as discussed above, electrospinning of a variety of materials can be used to produce aligned fibers that promote unidirectional alignment of muscle cells.208 A 6.2.2 Similarly, C2C12 myoblasts expressed more undifferentiated cell markers when grown on planar substrates or on half‐cylinders with diameters above 15–35 mm and more markers of early and late‐stage myogenic differentiation when the substrate diameter was below 10–20 mm, as well as more consistent alignment on substrates with small diameter curvatures.The curvature of the substrate alone may be sufficient for inducing cell alignment and differentiation. Human corneal stromal cells cultured on curved surfaces demonstrated increased expression of ECM‐related genes compared to those grown on planar surfaces.358 Si PEG gels with deep ridges were produced by casting the monomer solution in patterned molds and were shown to support the alignment and differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts. A similar approach using ridged modules seeded with bovine myocytes was able to successfully produce an 8 × 10 × 7 mm piece of cultivated “steak” tissue, which showed somewhat similar mechanical properties to a piece of conventional beef tenderloin  ink that is removed following curing of the overall structure, using a high density of cells via multicellular spheroids or organoids as the “organ building blocks.” They formed perfusable cardiac tissue for eight days, which matured and was able to beat. As an alternative to traditional 3D printing, variations on the concept of additive manufacturing—including 2‐photon polymerization and laser sintering—may also be used to create sacrificial vascular structures to be embedded into a scaffold and then dissolved. Importantly, in muscle constructs containing channels formed from bioprinting sacrificial gelatin, muscle fibers were able to expand over time and take over some of the spaces previously occupied by the channels, resulting in dense tissue. This observation suggests two things for the production of CM: first, that low‐density bioprinted tissue with large channels can mature into higher‐density tissues under the right conditions, and second, that there may be some risk of channels intended to facilitate oxygen and nutrient transport closing up over the course of the maturation process. Consistent with this, engineered cartilage constructs grown on fibrous PGA became dramatically less permeable over several weeks of culture and displayed a tight correlation between the total amount of cells, glycosaminoglycans, and collagen found in the tissue and the permeability to glucose and dextran. The right balance of vascularization will need to be found to generate tissues dense enough to recapitulate the organoleptic properties of meat while avoiding the formation of necrotic cores.One potential strategy for creating vasculature‐mimicking channels is to form the channels from a sacrificial material that can be washed away once the surrounding scaffold and the cells are in place. One research team at MIT developed a versatile perfusable scaffold system by 3D printing a dissolvable lattice of perfusable channels using a brittle carbohydrate‐based glass , casting a cell‐laden hydrogel surrounding the lattice, and then dissolving the glass lattice with warm culture medium, leaving behind perfusable channels.228 In6.3.2 This method has been tested successfully with endothelial, epithelial, muscle, osteoblast, and neuronal cells and is suitable for the production of tubular constructs several centimeters in length, although the diameter is limited by the fact that channels are not present in the construct's interior. Molding of scaffolds around linear wire arrays has been used as a strategy for introducing vascular‐like channels, which were demonstrated to improve both fibroblast seeding and oxygen and nutrient delivery within small‐scale constructs. Similar array‐based strategies have been used for tendon and spinal cord tissue engineering. Using a stereolithography‐based approach in which a photoabsorber compound was added to the prehydrogel solution to block excess light penetration, Grigoryan et al. managed to directly print hydrogel constructs containing perfusable channels without the use of any sacrificial material. Interestingly, the photoabsorbers tested included tartrazine, curcumin, and anthocyanin, which are already approved for and commonly used in food applications. Perfusable vascular‐like channels were also demonstrated using the ExCeL technique, in which sheets of paper are pretreated with cross‐linker solution and cut to create the desired structures, after which cells are printed onto the paper and then multiple sheets are stacked to create 3D constructs.Several methods that avoid the use of sacrificial materials have also been described. The “tissue in a tube” strategy relies on the contraction of a collagen‐based bioink within a tube, leaving a hollow, media‐filled space surrounding the construct, which may be used for perfusion.304 Th6.3.3 These spheroids, once printed, are expected to self‐organize into a functional vascular network. This self‐organizing principle appears to have some experimental support; hydrogels containing a mixture of endothelial cells and satellite cell‐derived myoblasts were able to form aligned fibers 1.5 mm thick containing capillary‐like endothelial networks after one week of culture. An alternate version of this method in which the myoblasts were first cultured on their own for some time, followed by the addition of an outer layer of endothelial cells, resulted in vascular networks that were longer, more branched, and better connected. Self‐organization of endothelial cells into tubules appears to be enhanced by co‐culture with MSCs, and the strength of this enhancement is dependent on the scaffold material. 3D printing of cardiac muscle cells and endothelial cells has been demonstrated for miniature human hearts as a proof of concept.While endothelial cells themselves are likely not directly required for oxygen and nutrient transport within CM as long as a suitable set of channels are provided, it may be possible to reduce the need for fine patterning of vascular‐like structures by taking advantage of these cells’ tendencies toward forming tubes and branched structures. One suggested scheme for bioprinting tissue‐engineered organs involves the use of spheroids containing endothelial and smooth muscle cells, as well as other cell types relevant to the organ in question, to form a complete vascular tree with multiple vessel diameters.181 Th6.3.4 A key point from this review that may be relevant to CM is the importance of vascular channels with a range of sizes. Larger‐diameter vessels are necessary to carry blood  across the full thickness of the construct, and smaller capillary‐like channels are necessary to carry blood or media close enough to each cell that oxygen and nutrient diffusion can reach all cells within the scaffold. Histological characterization of human vastus lateralis muscle showed the majority of muscle fibers in direct and close contact (<10 µm) with at least one capillary, and often several, and an overall capillary‐to‐fiber ratio between 1 and 2. The same study revealed that the cross‐sectional area of the average fiber ranged from ≈800 to 1600 µm2, which translates to a diameter of 32–45 µm, assuming roughly circular fibers. This is consistent with estimates of typical muscle fiber diameters of 10–50 µm or 10–100 µm. The upper limit for mass transfer of oxygen has been estimated as ≈200 µm, or about 2–20 muscle fiber diameters. This difference is not terribly surprising, given that muscles in vivo must be capable of supporting not only the oxygen requirements of cells at rest but also those during high‐intensity exercise, which may be up to 100‐fold higher. Because CM does not need to support the needs of a living animal, its vascularization requirements may be considerably lower than those of naturally occurring muscle tissue, and therefore a less complex vasculature may suffice. In tissue‐engineered C2C12 muscle constructs growth in a hollow fiber bioreactor (HFB), cells remained viable at distances up to 98 µm from the nearest fiber. At the very least, CM scaffolds will need to provide pores or channels for oxygen and nutrient transport no more than about 100–200 µm away from any given point in the tissue construct. The required density of channels or pores may also depend on whether specific oxygen carriers, such as recombinant hemoglobin, are used in the culture media.A key question for CM is to what extent it will be necessary to faithfully mimic the structure and function of the vasculature found in living animals. A review paper from Vladimir Mironov's group describes vascularization of thick tissues as a key unsolved challenge in tissue engineering.181 A 6.3.5 Because the ability to efficiently perfuse media through a cell‐laden scaffold will become increasingly important as tissue engineering techniques are scaled up for use with CM, innovations in perfusion bioreactors will be a necessary complement to innovations in scaffolding. Although small scaffold constructs can be simply grown in suspension, collisions between scaffolds or with the bioreactor itself have been shown to limit cell density and growth rate. In addition, the necessity of medium perfusion through the scaffold will increase with the size of the construct, as passive diffusion through pores or channels may be insufficient for oxygen and nutrient transport. For example, hydrogels with vascular‐mimicking channels 750 µm in diameter were able to support the survival of hepatocytes, but only when the construct was actively perfused. Furthermore, perfusion may influence differentiation via shear stress.For successful commercial production of CM, it will be necessary to select not only an appropriate scaffold but also an appropriate bioreactor. The choice of bioreactor may depend in part on the choice of scaffold and vice versa. General considerations for the use of bioreactors in tissue engineering have been reviewed elsewhere.391 Be can be adopted by CM investigators. However, the high complexity of multiple cell types growing within nonuniform scaffolds to create a diverse set of CM products will be computationally intensive and pose new challenges that may require multiscale approaches that have lower computational costs. The Cultivated Meat Modeling Consortium provides a forum for computational modelers to understand and address the most pressing scaffolding and perfusion‐based challenges in collaboration with CM manufacturers.Questions related to perfusion, scaffold permeability, fluid flows, nutrient mass transfer, and stressors within scaffolds may be investigated with the aid of computational modeling. Computational models can decrease the time and cost burden of running physical experiments and inform the optimized design of scaffolds, perfusion bioreactors, or sensory equipment. Computational approaches previously applied to bioreactor optimization for bone tissue engineering400 ca Cells are grown on the outside of these fibers, thus ensuring a reliable supply of oxygen and nutrients, as well as the removal of waste products. These systems are similar to what is used for kidney dialysis machines as well as large‐scale water treatment, pointing to feasibility for scaling up the technology, and they have been demonstrated for mammalian cell culture in a laboratory‐scale proof‐of‐concept system. The use of HFBs was also modeled in a life cycle assessment of CM. Other perfusion systems, such as packed bed and fluidized bed bioreactors, are more readily scalable and may be useful for the proliferation phase of CM production, but operate by perfusing media around particles  rather than through a scaffold. Thus, this review limits its focus to HFBs as they are well‐suited to the task of perfusing media through a dense, tissue‐like construct.A recent review of bioreactors specifically focused on their applications in CM noted that HFBs, in which culture medium is actively perfused through a dense array of permeable fibers, are by far the most capable of supporting high‐density culture and therefore require much smaller volumes to produce a given amount of cell mass.83 Cel The patent describes growing cells or tissues in a chamber through which serum‐free medium is perfused and subsequently recycled.Cellular Agriculture Ltd. is developing HFBs that slowly perfuse culture medium through parallel tubes (fibers) of a porous polymeric material, delivering a carefully controlled amount of oxygen and nutrients to the surrounding cells. FutureMeat Technologies, another academic spin‐out, has published a patent on perfusion bioreactor systems for growing CM.141 Th Although the resulting tissues exhibited high cell density within the cell culture space, the fibers themselves represented a majority of the space within the total construct, reducing the overall cell density of the construct considerably. Additional studies have also reported small‐scale growth of C2C12 myoblasts in HFBs, either as single cells or as spheroids.An HFB featuring cellulose triacetate fibers was able to maintain C2C12 cells over a period of 7 days and support differentiation into multinucleated myotubes expressing MHC and tropomyosin.393 Al Studies examining the use of these bioreactor designs for CM applications should carefully assess membrane materials, pore sizes, and operating conditions to minimize the effects of fouling.Despite the advantages in achievable cell density offered by HFBs, they also suffer from a tendency to undergo membrane fouling—largely due to the deposition of albumin and other proteins on the fiber surface—as well as compaction of the fiber material, leading to decreases in oxygen and nutrient flux over time.413 St Variations on the traditional hollow fiber design are also possible: for example, a system with two sets of fibers for media perfusion in opposite directions designed to minimize gradients within the tissue and a third set dedicated to gas supply was investigated for adipose tissue engineering with promising results. Fabrication of hollow fibers from biodegradable materials such as PLA or PCL has been demonstrated at a small scale. Rolled sheets of channel‐bearing PCL in combination with a fibrin hydrogel have been reported to be able to support the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts within a perfusion bioreactor. Optimization of such fibers for use in larger formats and with an optimized degradation rate might improve the ability to produce whole‐cut CM without the need for complicated harvest procedures, effectively turning the hollow fibers themselves into part of the scaffold.HFBs may be further improved for use as meat cultivators through optimization of the design itself and the operating parameters. For example, alternating the flow direction led to a threefold increase in the number of cells produced within an HFB as well as a more even cell distribution within the reactor, as compared to unidirectional flow.414 Va with sterility maintenance acting as a major cost driver. The ability of perfusion bioreactors, and especially HFBs, to support high‐density cell culture could in theory lead to cost savings and environmental benefits. However, unlike other designs such as stirred‐tank or airlift bioreactors, large‐scale bioreactors capable of perfusing media through a channeled or porous construct remain theoretical. Significant innovations in perfusion bioreactor design will be necessary for these technologies to be adopted by the high‐volume CM industry.At scale, perfusion bioreactors will likely contribute substantially to the overall cost of production of CM,419 wi6.4TableSeveral recent studies have reported successful attempts at engineering muscle at the scale of several mm to several cm, including CM prototypes which in some respects resemble whole‐cut tissues Table7. Hist suggested that combinations of two or more biomanufacturing techniques may be the most promising category of approaches to the challenge of engineering large, complex, and hierarchical constructs with the correct organization on multiple scales. The following sections will discuss the challenge of producing complex 3D tissues containing both muscle and fat cells—as well as potentially other cell types relevant to certain cuts of meat—and the use of stiffness cues as a means of steering cells down particular differentiation pathways in a spatially defined manner.Many of the earliest CM products on the market will likely be burgers, sausages, or other unstructured products. However, for CM to have a major impact on the food system, it is necessary to also develop methods for reproducing the complex, heterogeneous structures that give foods like steaks and fish fillets their characteristic organoleptic properties. For most whole‐cut products, muscle fiber alignment will play an important role in defining the sensory characteristics of the meat as well as serving as a differentiation and maturation cue  scaffolding materials or incorporate synthetic or engineered polymers and peptides. Any genetically modified or engineered material, polymer, or peptide would likely be subject to existing GM regulations and labeling depending on jurisdiction. Manufacturers that use synthetic materials may also be subject to additional regulatory oversight, including the demonstration of safety for novel synthetic materials that have not yet been introduced in the food system. Meeting additional regulatory requirements would translate into longer review periods and higher compliance costs, and could negatively influence consumer perception of CM products. Together, this may provide an incentive for CM manufacturers to use non‐GM scaffolding materials that are covered under current food safety regulations.7.3Different products are likely to contain variable percentages of scaffold materials as a fraction of final product weight. In some instances, a scaffold may biodegrade to undetectable levels in the final product. Scaffolds that remain integrated into the final product will likely be subject to food safety regulations as an ingredient or additive, depending on the level present and local regulatory definitions. Scaffold and biomaterial suppliers should therefore manufacture scaffolds according to general HACCP principles and under food GMP conditions to ensure that controls are in place to prevent unintentional food safety hazards such as allergen cross‐contamination.447 Further research by scaffold manufacturers may be needed to avoid the use of potentially hazardous solvents and to develop food‐safe polymerization agents. If a scaffold is purposed to degrade or transform throughout the manufacturing process, potential degradation by‐products may require new safety assessments. Physicochemical transformations such as oxidation, degradation, or enzymatic processing of synthetic polymers could also affect product quality and give rise to new safety risks. CM manufacturers should therefore consider the safety implications for all scaffolding inputs and materials processing agents prior to their use in order to mitigate downstream food safety risks.Depending on the method of construction, a scaffold could be contaminated by non‐food‐safe chemical solvents or may include other non‐food‐safe components such as some photoinitiators and chemical cross‐linking agents used for scaffold polymerization.448 Fu8A variety of approaches have been proposed or explored for recapitulating the structure of muscle tissue. These include a diverse array of scaffold biomaterials and methods, as well as approaches such as organoids or cell sheets that avoid the use of scaffolds entirely. There will likely not be a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to scaffolding for CM but rather a variety of solutions for a variety of different end products.Protein‐ or peptide‐based scaffolds, including ECM proteins and self‐assembling peptides, have a host of advantages, but there is a lack of low‐cost and scaled sources appropriate for use in CM. Production using plants, bacteria, yeast, animal cell culture, or cell‐free systems may allow for the cost‐effective use of both ECM protein‐based scaffolds and self‐assembling peptides. In parallel, it will be important to identify the most critical ECM molecules for use in scaffolding, with attention to differences between species and cell types. Costs may be further reduced by exploring combinations of materials that include a small percentage of ECM proteins or self‐assembling peptides together with lower‐cost materials to form the bulk of the scaffold structure.255 Degradation could perhaps be accelerated sufficiently for use in CM, e.g., by using low molecular weight forms of these polymers as very thin fibers. In parallel, the identification of novel polymers with faster degradation and other desirable characteristics could yield better results. Reactions during cooking, including Maillard reactions, lipid oxidation, and vitamin decomposition, produce a variety of meat‐associated flavor compounds. Thus, combining some of these precursors into edible synthetic polymer scaffolds could create functional scaffolds that release these compounds upon their eventual breakdown and thereby improve the flavor of the final meat product. For any polymer‐based scaffold, it will be necessary to characterize the degradation profile, the tendency of the resulting monomers to be washed out of or retained in the final product, and the food safety and organoleptic implications of any remaining scaffold material or monomers. In addition, the food safety implications of any solvents or polymerization reagents used will need to be carefully considered.Synthetic materials including PLA, PLGA, PEG, and PCL are currently unsuitable for use as CM scaffolds intended to remain in the final product, primarily due to the need for scaffold materials to either biodegrade rapidly  into harmless byproducts or be suitable for direct consumption. Unless new innovations can address these challenges, these materials will be appropriate only as microcarriers or other temporary scaffolds. Although reported degradation rates for these materials are unacceptably long, the degradation rate of PCL varies substantially depending on factors including initial molecular weight, construct geometry, pH, and temperature.290 De The use of decellularized plant tissues is a promising area due to their inherently vascularized structure. However, additional innovations are needed concerning the development of scalable, sustainable, and food‐safe decellularization techniques, as well as methods for combining vascularized tissues produced using such scaffolds into larger whole‐cut CM products.Plant‐ and fungus‐derived materials are a promising category of potential scaffolding materials but present some challenges that further research must address. Methods such as particle leaching, melt molding, freeze drying, and gas foaming that have been extensively investigated with nonedible scaffolding materials should be further investigated in the context of plant‐ and fungus‐derived edible biomaterials.334 Th should be further explored to functionalize plant‐based scaffolds. As an alternative to direct functionalization, the ability of recombinant ECM proteins—particularly vitronectin and fibronectin—added to serum‐free culture medium to improve adhesion to a variety of CM‐compatible scaffold materials should be assessed. For all these methods, the feasibility of reducing costs as production is scaled up should be further assessed as more knowledge is gained, and these costs weighed against the efficacy of each method.Methods to improve cell adhesion to a variety of materials have the potential to improve these materials’ applicability as CM scaffolds. Materials such as alginate, PCL, and PLGA could be enhanced through functionalization with ECM motifs or other methods, especially those compatible with existing food safety standards such as approved food ingredients that happen to contain the relevant adhesion motifs. The use of ECM motifs in combination with CBDs344 sh Researchers should also investigate how bioreactors could be designed to simultaneously perfuse media through complex tissues and deliver stretch or other stimuli relevant to muscle maturation to enhance alignment and growth in long‐term cultures of whole‐cut CM. Furthermore, the use of 2D cell sheets is an interesting concept with the advantage that no exogenous scaffold material is introduced into the construct. However, developing novel bioreactors and automated assembly methods will be necessary for this technique to apply to scaled CM production. For all of these approaches, it will be critical for bioreactor designs to simultaneously take into account cost considerations and the necessity of reliably maintaining sterile operating conditions.It will also be necessary to pursue innovations related to bioreactor and bioprocess design, including the optimization of membrane materials, pore sizes, and operating conditions to minimize the effects of fouling in HFBs designed for CM.413 Re thereby ultimately producing a better product. To facilitate comparisons across studies, we recommend using metrics for muscle tissue maturation that can be easily and quantitatively compared, such as fusion indices based on the percentage of myotubes with a threshold number of nuclei , myotube width, and myotube length. Such a strategy may reduce duplication of effort and allow the field to more quickly align on the most effective methods for inducing differentiation and maturation. It will be important to thoroughly investigate processes such as tissue compaction and resulting reductions in the widths of pores or perfusable channels in the maturing tissue, as well as ECM deposition by fibroblasts and other cells. Understanding the factors that influence the rate and extent of both processes will make it possible to optimize for high‐density tissues while avoiding necrotic cores and to tune textural properties by ensuring that the amount, composition, and organization of connective tissue in the final product is correct. It may be desirable to control the rate of ECM remodeling by manipulating the activity of MMPs and TIMPs if it proves to be the case that early whole‐cut products suffer from too much, too little, or poorly organized connective tissue.Methods for producing muscle fiber alignment and spatial heterogeneity, including acoustic cell patterning, bioprinting, lithography, embossing, micromolding, and incorporation of growth factors into scaffolds in defined patterns, require further exploration. Novel combinations of techniques should be seriously explored, as this may make it possible to combine the strengths of multiple biofabrication or structuring techniques,422 th Scholefield and Schuller found that cultured bluefin tuna cells accumulated fatty acids present in the culture medium, but there was no evidence that the cells synthesized DHA or EPA from precursors ALA and LNA. Therefore, supplementation of DHA or EPA through the culture media or the scaffold could increase omega‐3 content in cultivated seafood. Alternatively, coculture with other cell types or genetic engineering could help recapitulate conventional fatty acid profiles. Similar strategies will apply for other beneficial compounds acquired through the animal's diet or produced by gut microbes, such as vitamin B12.Meeting nutritional expectations will require considering beneficial compounds that are not produced by animal cells but rather consumed through animals’ diets. For example, fish are well known as excellent sources of polyunsaturated omega‐3 fatty acids, but marine fish primarily accumulate these from food sources such as algae. Freshwater fish have less access to the long‐chain omega‐3s DHA and EPA in their diet and can produce them in small quantities from the precursor ALA within their livers.451 Sc or fat content of the scaffold. For example, fats could be confined to the regions of the scaffold where adipogenic cells are designed to adhere and taken up by adipocytes during the differentiation phase. Consideration should also be given to the organoleptic properties of any remaining scaffold material. For example, scaffolds designed for fish will require recombinant fish collagen, other materials with similarly low melting temperatures, or materials that are degraded and replaced by fish ECM.Producing CM with the desired organoleptic properties will depend on achieving the right balance of sufficiently mature muscle fibers, adipocytes, and connective tissue. Furthermore, these elements must exist in the correct 3D distribution. It remains to be determined what level of maturation of muscle fibers and other cells will be necessary to fully recapitulate the organoleptic and nutritional properties of conventional meat, how this process will differ in cocultures of multiple cell types, and whether a different level of maturation will be necessary for structured and unstructured products. It may be feasible to optimize the marbling pattern of CM products by spatially varying the material, stiffness,222 or is worthy of further investigation. In addition to genetic strategies, media optimization offers room for nutritional or flavor enhancement either through the direct addition of beneficial compounds or by adding or removing precursors to helpful or harmful compounds. The scaffold could contribute its own sensory and nutritional qualities, such as by containing microencapsulated flavoring agents or vitamins, contributing to the overall amino acid profile, or increasing fiber content. The same technologies needed to recapitulate the naturally occurring fatty acid compositions of certain marine fish, as discussed above, could be applied to freshwater fish, fish lower on the food chain, or terrestrial animals, all of which are naturally lower in EPA, DHA, and related compounds. Future iterations of CM could provide personalized nutrition for humans and pets or even serve as a novel drug delivery system.The idea that the nutritional properties of CM could be tuned as desired to achieve certain health outcomes or organoleptic properties110 is Previous research has shown an increased prevalence of off‐flavors in conventional beef from cattle fed diets high in polyunsaturated fatty acids as well as negative correlations between polyunsaturated fatty acid content and tenderness in pork. Therefore, it will be important to conduct sensory panels comparing CM prototypes with different levels of nutritional enhancement, both within academic settings to establish general best practices and within private companies to evaluate the impacts of changes to specific products.It will be necessary to balance any nutritional enhancements with possible impacts on flavor since fat and its oxidation products can substantially impact the flavor of meat.94 PreCM is an exciting area of scientific innovation that is gaining momentum in both academia and the for‐profit sector. Still, many challenges remain and success is far from inevitable. Because of the unique set of challenges facing CM innovators, interdisciplinary collaboration will be crucial. Experts in tissue engineering, food science, polymer chemistry, mechanical engineering, and many other areas will need to operate at the intersections of their collective knowledge for this technology to reach its full potential.The authors declare no conflict of interest.Supporting InformationClick here for additional data file.