Transferrin is a key supplement for iron delivery and proliferation in in vitro meat production. We evaluated whether transferrin can be delivered in the context of Camelina seed derived preparations to support cell culture applications while minimising reliance on highly purified reagents. C2C12 myoblasts were cultured under serum-free conditions and benchmarked against transferrin negative controls.
We observed that crude Camelina seed extract can inhibit cell viability, and that clarification and filtration steps reduce extract associated toxicity. When filtered Camelina seed extract was supplemented with commercially sourced transferrin, it supported improved C2C12 viability, exceeding 70% of the positive control across multiple extract doses.
These outcomes align with prior observations that plant produced transferrin is functional in C2C12 cultures and supports dose dependent increases in cell growth.
Together, these results indicate that transferrin supplementation can be compatible with appropriately processed Camelina seed derived preparations for serum-free cell culture. In parallel, we are developing Camelina as a seed-based production platform for transferrin, with ongoing work focused on quantification and performance of seed derived transferrin preparations.