Insect Cell-Based Cellular Agriculture Platform for Production of Custom Triglycerides

Abstract

Insect cells have emerged as an alternative platform for cellular agriculture due to their high cell density, resilience to environmental stressors, and ease of scalability. However, the incorporation of structured fat within insect cell-based systems remains an unaddressed challenge.The overall objective was to develop a viable approach to produce triglycerides with a profile resembling that of conventional animal fat, thereby enhancing the sensory and functional properties of cultured meat.

The research focused on understanding the metabolic fate and distribution of supplemented free fatty acids in model insect cells. Preliminary findings demonstrated that insect cells can effectively incorporate and modify fatty acids, making this a viable strategy for improving fat composition in cultured meat systems. Key research questions addressed in this study included the extent of fatty acid incorporation, the biochemical transformations within the cells, and the impact of the chosen fatty acid carrier on cell morphology and viability.The study investigated a novel strategy for enhancing the fat component in cultured meat by modifying the lipid composition of insect cells. Trichoplusia ni (Hi-5) cells were enriched with exogenous oleic acid (OA) at varying concentrations (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 mM) to evaluate cell viability, fatty acid uptake, incorporation, and metabolic transformation.The results showed that OA loading significantly increased lipid content, particularly at 0.1 mM, which also yielded a uniform lipid uptake pattern. Higher concentrations resulted in reduced cell size and increased granularity, indicating cytotoxic stress and heterogeneity. Lipid analysis confirmed the transformation of OA into other fatty acids, particularly palmitoleic acid, highlighting active metabolic processing within insect cells.These findings demonstrated that insect cells can be tailored through fatty acid supplementation to produce lipid profiles resembling animal fat.