Serum-free cultures of C2C12 cells show different muscle phenotypes which can be estimated by metabolic profiling

In vitro skeletal muscle cell production is emerging in the field of artificial lab-grown meat as alternative future food. Currently, there is an urgent paradigm shift towards a serum replacement culture system. Surprisingly, little is known about the impact of serum-free culture on skeletal muscle cells to date. Therefore, we performed metabolic profiling of the C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes in serum-free mediums (B27, AIM-V) and compared it with conventional serum supplementation culture. Furthermore, cell morphology, viability, and myogenic differentiation were observed for 7 days of cultivation. Intriguingly, the metabolic difference is more dominant between the cell status than medium effects. In addition, proliferative myoblast showed more distinct metabolic differences than differentiated myotubes in different culture conditions. The intracellular levels of GL3P and UDP-GlcNAc were significantly increased in myotubes versus myoblast. Non-essential amino acids and pyruvate reduction and transamination showed significant differences among serum, B27, and AIM-V cultures. Intracellular metabolite profiles indicated that C2C12 myotubes cultured in serum and B27 had predominant glycolytic and oxidative metabolism, respectively, indicating fast and slow types of muscle confirmed by MHC immunostaining. This work might be helpful to understand the altered metabolism of skeletal muscle cells in serum-free culture and contribute to future artificial meat research work.

Automated summary

This study compared the metabolism of C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes under different culture conditions, revealing that cell status has a greater impact on metabolism than the culture medium, and serum-free culture can alter the metabolic characteristics of skeletal muscle cells.