Page 20 - IJB-9-5

International Journal of Bioprinting 3D printed edible bird’s nests

to phospholipids, demonstrating that the engineered and components from the feeding layer and the loading capacity
natural EBN regulated lipid metabolism to varying degrees. of the receiving layer, with attention to possible loss during
These outcomes might add weight to previous findings that this process. Second, we used laboratory cell culture in this
EBN intake could inhibit high fat diet-induced oxidative proof-of-concept study, while in future scale-up scenarios,
stress and insulin resistance, potentially attenuating the bioreactors and related facilities are required for maintaining
coagulation effects of high-fat diets in vivo [37,38] . high viability of large cell numbers. Third, culturing of either
The KEGG enrichment analysis revealed the metabolic primary or immortalized cells of multiple species could be
mechanism differences between the two groups. As shown compared, taking into account the production (e.g., cost,
in Figure 5K, the serum metabolic pathways (P < 0.05 manufacturing) issues. Last but not the least, discussions on
and pathway impact >0) influenced by our new approach legal and ethical issues associated with the TeeBN should
mainly focused on metabolism, organismal system, and be further developed such as what food safety monitoring
human diseases pathways, with lipid metabolism, glycan systems should be established to ensure the quality of
biosynthesis and metabolism, nervous system, and TeeBN products, and how to label TeeBN products that
infectious disease (viral) significantly upregulated. can accurately describe features of the product and protect
consumers from misleading advertisement.
Overall, the data indicated that the intake of TeeBN had
highly similar effects compared with the natural EBN-I, from 4. Conclusion
a metabolomics perspective. The only detectable differences
were limited to a few aspects, such as lipid metabolism [37,39] . Our study demonstrated a prototype of substitutes for
These findings again proved our assumption that TeeBN natural EBN based on in vitro culture of epithelial cells in
had the potential to provide a comparable nutritional value 3D-printed matrices, inspired by the tissue engineering
as natural EBN, while preventing the huge environmental technology that grows human tissue cells in biomaterials
costs rendered by wild harvesting. scaffolds. We focused on evaluation of the viability and
secretion functionality of epithelial cells in the engineered
Our study resonates with recent works in the field of matrices, termed as the feeding layer, which ensured the
cellular agriculture, represented by cell-based meat, which production of nutritional factors mimicking the natural
“grows” animal-based products from mammalian cell process carried out in the salivary gland of the birds.
culture instead of harvesting from live animals . In 2020, We also highlighted that such factors could smoothly
[40]
Singapore approved the world’s first cell-cultured chicken diffuse from the feeding layer to a receiving layer with
for sale, which is seen as a landmark moment for the future well-defined, food-scale components. The final products
lab-grown meat industry . Based on the production preserved the main ingredients traditionally assumed to be
[41]
process of TeeBN, TeeBN products are expected to have nutritional in natural EBN, including EGF and sialic acids,
more market opportunities. For example, different from while avoiding contamination of harmful microbial and
cell-cultured meat production, living cells in fabricating chemical substances. The engineered products had a similar
TeeBN only serve to secrete the active ingredients from metabolic profile as natural EBN in mice, thereby showing
the feeding layer. The cells are excluded from the receiving the potential to reduce or replace excessive farming of wild
layer and do not become part of the final products. In bird’s nests that is accompanied by huge environmental
this regard, TeeBN would encounter fewer regulatory and ecological costs. Further, biotechnological, ethical, and
hurdles for premarket approvals than cell-cultured meat legal investigations are required to accelerate development
in many jurisdictions, even in the European Union, where of such products toward commercialization.
the authority has adopted possibly the most stringent
regulations on novel foods globally . Moreover, the Acknowledgments
[42]
manufacturing process of TeeBN will dramatically reduce
the risk of human–animal disease transmission and We thank Ms. Ruoyu Mu and Mr. Zhencheng Liao for
exposure to harmful heavy metals, which will decrease technical discussion on in vivo experiments and 3D
public health and heavy metal poisoning risks. In addition, printing, respectively.
the open platform of the receiving layer allows for the easy
addition of nutritional ingredients or even extra flavor Funding
condiments, enabling more tailored services that satisfy This study was funded by the Science and Technology
consumers’ different demands.
Development Fund, Macau SAR (File no. 0060/2020/
Toward a successful commercialization of TeeBN, AGJ and 0097/2019/A2), Shenzhen-Hong Kong-
future research can focus on several possibilities. The first Macau Science and Technology Program Category C
is on better control of the release kinetics of the active (SGDX20201103092803014) of the Shenzhen Science

Volume 9 Issue 5 (2023) 12 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.691