The effect of serum-free media on the metabolic yields and growth rates of C2C12 cells in the context of cultivated meat production

Successful commercialization of cultivated meat products as alternative sources of dietary protein for a growing global population will require development of efficient and inexpensive serum-free cell culture media. It is known that serum-free media elicit dissimilar cell growth behavior compared to serum-based media, but data comprehensively exploring the effects of serum-free culture on the nutrient requirements of cultivated meat-relevant cell types have yet to be reported. We performed spent media analysis of C2C12 cells growing in Essential 8 serum-free media and in conventional serum-containing media. Data indicated that although the cell growth rates were similar in the two media over seven days, there were significant differences in the utilization rates of some key nutrients such as glucose, glutamine, glycine, and cystine. We extrapolated from the data that roughly 250–275 g of amino acids and 1100–1500 g of glucose would be required to produce 1 kg of C2C12 cells, though these requirements may change when using more optimized cells, media, and feed strategies. Our results highlight the influence of serum and serum replacements on cell metabolism, and indicate that previous data from metabolic studies performed using serum-containing media may not directly translate to serum-free systems.