Development of a Normal Porcine Cell Line Growing in a Heme-Supplemented, Serum-Free Condition for Cultured Meat.

A key element for the cost-effective development of cultured meat is a cell line culturable in serum-free conditions to reduce production costs. Heme supplementation in cultured meat mimics the original meat flavor and color. This study introduced a bacterial extract generated from Corynebacterium that was selected for high-heme expression by directed evolution. A normal porcine cell line, PK15, was used to apply the bacterial heme extract as a supplement. Consistent with prior research, we observed the cytotoxicity of PK15 to the heme extract at 10 mM or higher. However, after long-term exposure, PK15 adapted to tolerate up to 40 mM of heme. An RNA-seq analysis of these heme-adapted PK15 cells (PK15H) revealed a set of altered genes, mainly involved in cell proliferation, metabolism, and inflammation. We found that cytochrome P450, family 1, subfamily A, polypeptide 1 (CYP1A1), lactoperoxidase (LPO), and glutathione peroxidase 5 (GPX5) were upregulated in the PK15H heme dose dependently. When we reduced serum serially from 2% to serum free, we derived the PK15H subpopulation that was transiently maintained with 5-10 mM heme extract. Altogether, our study reports a porcine cell culturable in high-heme media that can be maintained in serum-free conditions and proposes a marker gene that plays a critical role in this adaptation process.

Permissive growth of human adenovirus type 4 vaccine strain-based vector in porcine cell lines.

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in using adenoviruses as live vectors to develop recombinant vaccines. Previous studies have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of HIV/SIV and influenza vaccine candidates based on human adenovirus type 4 (Ad4) replication-competent vectors in rhesus macaque and human model. To explore the possibility of human Ad4 vaccine strain used as a vector in developing porcine vaccines, the growth properties of replication-competent human Ad4 vaccine strain recombinant encoding EGFP in different porcine cell lines were investigated. All tested cell lines are permissive for Ad4 vaccine strain vector with varied replication efficiency. Thus, human Ad4 based vectors would be promising supplement to adenovirus vectors as a delivery vehicle for recombinant vaccines in swine industry.