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NASA NTRS1996

Effects of Microgravity on Quail Eye Development

During embryonic development, the most exposed tissue of the eye, the cornea, becomes differentially bulged outward because of constant intraocular pressure (IOP). The component cells of the cornea secrete a unique, paracrystalline extracellular matrix (the stroma) composed of orthogonal plies of collagen fibrils and proteoglycans. The cornea remains avascular, becomes transparent, and becomes more densely innervated than any other region on the surface of the body. Corneas from chicken embryos that flew on STS-47 contain many more cellular processes in the outermost region of the stroma (Bowman's Layer) than any corresponding region of control corneas. These processes appear to be cross-sections of cytoplasmic extensions of cells and are found in that region of Bowman's Layer immediately beneath the basal lamina of the corneal epithelium. Here, we propose to compare corneas of quail that flew in space on Mir-1 with those of ground controls to determine if the same unusual cellular processes are seen as in the space-flown chicken corneas. In the central regions of such space-flown corneas, the processes appear to be either portions of basal epithelial cells whose pseudopodial extensions have migrated down through their own basal lamina into the stroma, or corneal nerves that have innervated the corneal stroma in an unusual manner. Eyeballs of embryos fixed on Mir-1, control embryos fixed at KSC and clinostated embryos fixed at KSU, will provide corneas for this study. Electron microscopy will be used to assess the distribution of the cellular processes in Bowman's Layer in the central region of each cornea. Attempts also will be made to determine the relative glycosaminoglycan distributions in the corneal stromas by indirect immunofluorscence and to record whole-mount staining patterns of the corneal nerves.

Conrad, Gary W.↗

NASA NTRS2022

Co-leveraging Scientific Advances in Space Biology and Astrobiology Towards Achieving NASA’s Life Science Objectives

Executive Summary: Distinct lines of scientific inquiry drives the separation of NASA’s fundamental life science research into Space Biology and Astrobiology. This division developed as a way to place life scientists alongside experts in the physical constraints that define the acclimation, adaptation and evolution of biology systems relevant to their respective subjects. For astrobiology, integration with disciplines such as geology, geochemistry, astronomy, planetary science, etc., enables a comprehensive assessment of the physical environment and its co-evolution with biological processes. Space Biology’s co-location with Physical Sciences places life science researchers adjacent to experts in the physical phenomena associated with microgravity and spaceflight, enabling an understanding of how the spaceflight environment affects biological systems. Despite this separation, aspects of both disciplines have converged on a similar, fundamental objective: to describe and understand the dynamics of complex living communities in the contexts of their physical environments. While the environmental systems and timescales are dramatically different, continuing to motivate the separation into distinct fields, similarities in the underlying objective present opportunities to find efficiencies, reduce overlap, and minimize duplication of effort. Space Biology and Astrobiology share a common need to understand microbial physiology in extreme environments – whether the ‘built’ spaceflight environment or the natural environments in which many astrobiology studies are conducted. In particular, open questions in each discipline require the development of quantitative frameworks, applicable at the ecosystem level, that support predictive capabilities for environments where observations are sparse. Additionally, both disciplines have a need to prepare, detect, and analyze the (potential) biological signal in complex samples-often in a completely autonomous fashion. The next decade will see NASA Space Biology moving to understand and describe the effects of the beyond low-earth orbit (BLEO) spaceflight environment on living systems. This new direction will dramatically reduce the opportunities for ground-based analysis of space-flown samples, driving space biology investigations towards fully autonomous experiments and missions. At the same time, astrobiology life detection missions aimed at detecting biosignatures on Mars and icy moons in the outer solar system could benefit from fully automated sample processing and analysis. There are opportunities to leverage instrument and method development between both disciplines within the context of these BLEO missions.

Astrobiology↗

NASA NTRS1987

Inhibited interferon-gamma but normal interleukin-3 production from rats flown on the Space Shuttle

Rats were flown on Space Shuttle SL-3 for one week. When spleen cells were removed from these rats and challenged with concanavalin-A, interferon-gamma production was severely inhibited, while interleukin-3 production was unaffected compared to ground-based control rats. These data indicate that there is a defect in interferon-gamma production in rats that have been exposed to spaceflight. This defect could contribute to, and be one reason for, immunosuppression observed after spaceflight.

Gould, Cheryl L.↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Infrared Spectral Imaging Radiometer and Laser Altimeter on STS-85 (an Aircraft Style Experiment Flown in Space)

Improvements in the remote sensing of clouds from space in the future will come from instruments with higher spatial and spectral resolution on more platforms and supported by active sounding. The space shuttle hitchhiker system allows new measurements to be prototyped in space with costs, operating flexibility and data volumes similar to aircraft experiments. The Infrared Spectral Imaging Radiometer and Shuttle Laser Altimeter hitchhiker experiment was flown in 1997. The experiment tested the use of uncooled thermal infrared imaging, laser cloud altitude measurements and high spatial resolution, tri-spectral sensing of cloud particle size and phase. A 1/4 km resolution, fifty orbit data set was obtained from STS-85. The presentation will focus on the use of the shuttle as an experiment platform and cover possible transition to the space station in the future.

Spinhirne, James D.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spaceflight Biospecimen and Data Sharing in Support of Science Discovery and Exploration

For decades, NASA and international partners have conducted biological experiments in space to understand effects of spaceflight and address potential hazards. To enable spaceflight back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond, it is imperative to further understand basic science and health risks associated with spaceflight, along with developing countermeasures. The sending of experiments and organisms into space is a costly endeavor. To maximize scientific return, sharing with the scientific community both space-flown biospecimens and data from completed experiments is essential. New fundamental, applied, and bioinformatic science insights can be gained from specimen and data sharing efforts. Data reuse enables spaceflight health risk modeling, analyzing adverse outcomes across spaceflight hazards, and deep space autonomous support for the flight medical officer. Space-flown biospecimens not required by mission Principal Investigators are regularly archived and made available for scientific request. The largest biorepository of these samples are found within NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection at Ames Research Center (ISC-ARC), which stores over 32,000 specimens mostly from Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) missions, but also some ground-based analog samples. The Ames Life Sciences Data Archive manages the ISC-ARC. Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. Only a handful of other similar collections exist worldwide. Rodent biospecimens exposed to simulated space radiation at Brookhaven National Laboratory are archived under the purview of NASA HRP Space Radiation Element. Microbial collection and analyses from 20 years of routine environmental monitoring of air, surfaces, and water systems of the ISS were performed to ensure a safe environment for astronauts. Samples from the ISC-ARC, space radiation and microbial collections are searchable and requestable through the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA). Decades of planetary protection microbial isolates derived from spacecraft bioburden are archived in JPL’s microbial collection. Rodent biospecimens from spaceflight investigations conducted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are archived and available at the JAXA Biorepository at Tsukuba Space Center. The Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems also has a collection of animal, microbial, cellular, and fungi available for research from ground analog experiments. Several data repositories exist for scientists to utilize. The LSDA is the primary NASA source of life sciences research data and information. It contains decades of spaceflight and ground-analog research involving human, microbial, cellular, plant, and animal subjects. Data is collected from NASA-funded investigations through the Human Research Program and the Space Biology Program. The NASA Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health collects and grants access to clinical and occupational health monitoring data from astronauts, with a list and description of data collected available for request through the LSDA. NASA GeneLab at ARC collects genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data from any species. It is a repository and platform for collaborative open-science bioinformatic approaches. JAXA is establishing an ‘omics-based repository in collaboration with the Tohoku Medical Megabank (ToMMo), called the JAXA-ToMMo Integrated Biobank for Space Life Science. Overall, the sharing of these biospecimen and data resources can assist researchers worldwide in understanding spaceflight effects on biology, along with enabling next generation data science applications for space exploration platforms. Websites: https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/ ; https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/isc-bsp ; https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/alsda

Ryan T. Scott↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Creating Benchmark Data for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Space Biology Research

To identify an appropriate AI/ML approach for a specific problem, the best practice is to measure algorithm performance through the benchmarking process. A scientific benchmark consists of an AI-ready dataset and a reference implementation on a specific scientific question. The NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has started the “Benchmark Initiative for AI/ML to create scientific benchmark datasets in three applications: 1) scientific benchmarking, which finds the best algorithm for a specific problem; 2) application benchmarking, which measures algorithm performance against a set of parameters; and 3) system benchmarking, which evaluates performance of hardware and software architecture. Currently, there are no standardized datasets available to benchmark AI/ML algorithms in the domain of space biology. In this work, we constructed two AI/ML-ready biological datasets from experiments in space-flown mice: cellular imaging and RNA-seq. First, radiation-exposed immune cells harbor DNA damage foci that can be fluorescently marked to visualize the amount of damage following exposure to ionizing radiation. However, such large datasets are difficult to analyze visually, due to imaging inconsistencies and human bias, and classical image processing approaches can fail on imaging artifacts. AI/ML are therefore exciting alternative, providing the speed of machines and the accuracy of humans. We have made this dataset available at https://registry.opendata.aws/bps_microscopy/. Second, high-throughput nucleic acid sequencing (DNA-seq, RNA-seq) has become widespread in biomedical research due to the growing availability and affordability of these assays. However, most sequencing datasets suffer from high dimensionality and low sample count. In this work, we used a generative adversarial network to synthesize a standardized, AI-ready, publicly available benchmark dataset for space biology RNA-seq data with sufficient space-flown and ground control mouse liver samples from NASA GeneLab. This dataset is available at https://registry.opendata.aws/bps_rnaseq/. These datasets are now fully open the Space Biology community to test their favorite AI/ML approaches.

James Casaletto↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Institutional Scientific Collection and Biospecimen Sharing Program at Ames Research Center

For decades, NASA and their international partners have flown and conducted non-human biological experiments in space to understand the effects of spaceflight and address potential biological hazards. It is imperative to understand the basic science and health risks associated with spaceflight, along with developing countermeasures, as humanity ventures back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor which makes space-flown biological specimens a valuable resource. To enable maximum scientific return, samples not required by the Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved and archived in NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC) at Ames Research Center (ARC). These specimens are collected according to well-established SOPs that maintain their quality and integrity. To enable new discoveries, the samples are then made available to the international scientific community through NASA’s Biospecimen Sharing Program (BSP). The NASA ISC currently stores over 32,000 specimens from Shuttle, International Space Station and ground-based investigations. Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. The specimens include tissues from all biological systems including musculoskeletal, neurosensory, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive and are stored at -80°C, -20°C, +4°C, or ambient. Descriptive metadata is available for all samples. Historically, these tissues have been used for a wide range of analyses, including histology, genomics, and transcriptomics. Also available through the ISC are tissue from NASA’s Space Radiation Laboratory. To study the effects of space radiation, researchers irradiate biological specimens and unused samples are made available through the LSDA. These biospecimens and data are made available through the public Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) website to promote basic discovery, pre-clinical and clinical science. Visit the NASA ISC-BSP website for more information.

Space Flown Biospecimens↗

NASA NTRS2016

Metabolomic and Genomic Markers of Atherosclerosis as Related to Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Vascular Function in Twin Astronauts

Background: Future human space travel will consist primarily of long-duration missions onboard the International Space Station (ISS) or exploration-class missions to Mars, its moons, or nearby asteroids. Astronauts participating in long-duration missions may be at an increased risk of oxidative stress and inflammatory damage due to radiation, psychological stress, altered physical activity, nutritional insufficiency, and hyperoxia during extravehicular activity. By studying one identical twin during his 1-year ISS mission and one ground-based twin, this work extends a current NASA-funded investigation to determine whether these spaceflight factors contribute to an accelerated progression of atherosclerosis. This study of twins affords a unique opportunity to examine the spaceflight-related atherosclerosis risk independent of the confounding factors associated with different genotypes. Purpose: The purpose of this investigation is to determine whether biomarkers of oxidative and inflammatory stress are elevated during and after long-duration spaceflight and determine if a relation exists between levels of these biomarkers and structural and functional indices of atherosclerotic risk measured in the carotid and brachial arteries. These physiological and biochemical data will be extended by using an exploratory approach to investigate the relationship between intermediate phenotypes and risk factors for atherosclerosis and the metabolomic signature from plasma and urine samples. Since metabolites are often the indirect products of gene expression, we will simultaneously assess gene expression and DNA methylation in leukocytes. Hypothesis: We predict that the space-flown twin will experience elevated biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammatory damage, altered arterial structure and function, accelerated telomere shortening, dysregulation of genes associated with oxidative stress and inflammation, and a metabolic profile shift that is associated with elevated atherosclerosis risk factors. Conversely, these will not be observed in the ground-based twin. Methods: We will measure blood and urine biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation as well as arterial structure and function (carotid intima-medial thickness and brachial artery flow-mediated dilation) in one twin astronaut before, during, and after long-duration spaceflight and in his twin serving as a ground-based control. Furthermore, we will measure metabolomics (targeted and untargeted approaches) and genomic markers (DNA methylation, mRNA gene expression, telomere length) to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved. A panel of biomarkers of oxidative and inflammatory stress will be measured in venous blood samples and 24-hour (in-flight) and 48-hour (pre- and post-flight) urine pools twice before flight, early (flight days 15 and 60) and late (2 weeks before landing) during the mission, and early in the post-flight recovery phase (approximately 3-5 days after landing). Arterial structure, assessed from measures of intima-media thickness, will be measured at the same times. Arterial function will be assessed using brachial flow-mediated dilation, a well-validated measure used to assess endothelium-dependent vasodilation and a sensitive predictor of atherosclerotic risk, only before and after spaceflight. Discussion: Pre- and in-flight data collection is in progress for the space-flown twin, and similar data have been obtained from the ground-based twin. Blood and urine samples will be batch processed when received from ISS after the conclusion of the 1-year mission. Results from these individual subjects will be compared to the larger complement of subjects participating in the companion study currently ongoing in ISS astronauts.

Lee, Stuart M. C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Microgravity associated changes in pituitary growth hormone (GH) cells prepared from rats flown on Space Lab 3

The effect of microgravity on the release of pituitary growth hormone (GH) in rats is studied. The pituitary glands from six adult rats exposed to microgravity are analyzed for in vitro and in vivo changes in pituitary growth hormone cells. The GH cell functions in the somatotrophs of flight rats are compared to a control group. The two assay procedures employed in the experiment are described. It is observed that intracellular levels of GH are two to three times greater in the flight rats than in the control group; however, the amount of GH released from the somatotrophs is 1.11 + or - 0.4 micrograms for the flight rats and 1.85 + or - 1.3 micrograms for the control rats.

Hymer, W. C.↗

NASA NTRS1985

Reduction of the spermatogonial population in rat testes flown on Space Lab-3

Quantization of the testicular spermatogonial population reduction in six rats is performed 12 hours after their return from seven days aboard Space Lab-3. The observed 7.1 percent organ weight loss, and 7.5 percent stage six spermatogonial cell population reduction in comparison with control rats correlate very well. Accurate dosimetry was not conducted on board, but radiation can not be considered the primary cause of the observed change. The decrease in protein kinase in the heart of these rats indicates that stress from adapting to weightlessness, the final jet flight, or other sources, is an important factor.

Philpott, D. E.↗

NASA NTRS1986

Radiometric responsivity determination for Feature Identification and Location Experiment (FILE) flown on space shuttle mission

A procedure was developed to obtain the radiometric (radiance) responsivity of the Feature Identification and Local Experiment (FILE) instrument in preparation for its flight on Space Shuttle Mission 41-G (November 1984). This instrument was designed to obtain Earth feature radiance data in spectral bands centered at 0.65 and 0.85 microns, along with corroborative color and color-infrared photographs, and to collect data to evaluate a technique for in-orbit autonomous classification of the Earth's primary features. The calibration process incorporated both solar radiance measurements and radiative transfer model predictions in estimating expected radiance inputs to the FILE on the Shuttle. The measured data are compared with the model predictions, and the differences observed are discussed. Application of the calibration procedure to the FILE over an 18-month period indicated a constant responsivity characteristic. This report documents the calibration procedure and the associated radiometric measurements and predictions that were part of the instrument preparation for flight.

Wilson, R. G.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA Institutional Scientific Collection and Biospecimen Sharing Program at Ames Research Center

Space Flown Biospecimens↗

NASA NTRS2017

Detection of DNA Damage by Space Radiation in Human Fibroblasts Flown on the International Space Station

Although charged particles in space have been detected with radiation detectors on board spacecraft since the discovery of the Van Allen Belts, reports on the effects of direct exposure to space radiation in biological systems have been limited. Measurement of biological effects of space radiation is challenging due to the low dose and low dose rate nature of the radiation environment, and due to the difficulty in distinguishing the radiation effects from microgravity and other space environmental factors. In astronauts, only a few changes, such as increased chromosome aberrations in their lymphocytes and early onset of cataracts, are attributed primarily to their exposure to space radiation. In this study, cultured human fibroblasts were flown on the International Space Station (ISS). Cells were kept at 37 degrees Centigrade in space for 14 days before being fixed for analysis of DNA damages with the gamma-H2AX assay. The 3-dimensional gamma-H2AX foci were captured with a laser confocal microscope. Quantitative analysis revealed several foci that were larger and displayed a track pattern only in the Day 14 flight samples. To confirm that the foci data from the flight study was actually induced from space radiation exposure, cultured human fibroblasts were exposed to low dose rate gamma rays at 37 degrees Centigrade. Cells exposed to chronic gamma rays showed similar foci size distribution in comparison to the non-exposed controls. The cells were also exposed to low- and high-LET (Linear Energy Transfer) protons, and high-LET Fe ions on the ground. Our results suggest that in G1 human fibroblasts under the normal culture condition, only a small fraction of large size foci can be attributed to high-LET radiation in space.

Lu, Tao↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spaceflight Biospecimen Sharing in Support of Science Discovery and Exploration

For decades, NASA and international partners have flown non-human biological experiments in space to understand the effects of spaceflight and address potential biological hazards. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor which makes space-flown biological specimens a valuable resource. To enable maximum scientific return, samples not required by the Principal Investigators are harvested and collected mostly by NASA’s Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program. These specimens are collected according to well-established SOPs that maintain quality and integrity. The specimens are then preserved, archived, and made available to the international scientific community through NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC) at Ames Research Center (ARC). The ISC-ARC biospecimens and descriptive metadata are findable and accessible for request through the Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA). The NASA ISC-ARC currently stores over 32,000 specimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based investigations (spaceflight analog experiments involving either hindlimb unloading, centrifugation, or partial weight-bearing study designs). Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. The specimens include tissues from many physiological systems including musculoskeletal, neurosensory, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive. Tissues are stored at -80°C, -20°C, +4°C, or ambient and preserved in various fixatives. Descriptive metadata is available for all samples. Historically, these tissues have been used for a wide range of analyses, including histology, genomics, and transcriptomics. Plans are underway to expand the ISC-ARC beyond the mostly-rodent contents, to include a space-relevant microbial culture collection including bacteria, fungi, and yeast. This expansion of the ISC-ARC will now involve identifying and standardizing best practices for microbial curations. To ensure safe long-term storage of microbial isolates, a microbiology laboratory will be dedicated for identification, cell culture, and lyophilization. Awarding of tissue to public science investigators has resulted in 33 publications since 2011, with 48 requests being submitted since 2016. Of note, NASA GeneLab has been awarded ISC-ARC biospecimens in the past few years. GeneLab processes the biospecimens to generate various levels of ‘omics’ data, which are published on GeneLab’s open access online platform for bioinformatics analysis and visualization. This has helped a systems biology community grow around the processed-biospecimens’ datasets, resulting in many new publications and insights. Websites: https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/isc-bsp ; https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Biospecimen

Ryan T. Scott↗

NASA NTRS2015

Detection of DNA Damage by Space Radiation in Human Fibroblast Cells Flown on the International Space Station

Although charged particles in space have been detected with radiation detectors on board spacecraft since the early discovery of the Van Allen Belt, reports on effects of direct exposure to space radiation in biological systems have been limited. Measurement of biological effects of space radiation has been difficult due to the low dose and low dose rate nature of the radiation environment, and the difficulty in separating the radiation effects from microgravity and other space environmental factors. In astronauts, only a small number of changes, such as increased chromosome aberrations in lymphocytes and early onset of cataracts, attributed primarily to the exposure to space radiation. In a recent experiment, human fibroblast cells were flown on the International Space Station (ISS). Cells fixed on Days 3 and 14 after reaching orbit were analyzed for phosphorylation of a histone protein H2AX by immunofluorescent staining of cells, which is a widely used marker for DNA double strand breaks. The 3-dimensional gamma-H2AX foci were captured with a laser confocal microscope. Quantitative analysis revealed a small fraction of foci that were larger and displayed a track pattern in the flight samples in comparison to the ground control. Human fibroblast cells were also exposed to low dose rate gamma rays, as well as to protons and Fe ions. Comparison of the pattern and distribution of the foci after gamma ray and charged particle exposure to our flight results confirmed that the foci found in the flown cells were indeed induced by space radiation.

Wu, Honglu↗

NASA NTRS2017

Detection of DNA Damage by Space Radiation in Human Fibroblasts Flown on the International Space Station

Space radiation consists of energetic charged particles of varying charges and energies. Exposure of astronauts to space radiation on future long duration missions to Mars, or missions back to the Moon, is expected to result in deleterious consequences such as cancer and comprised central nervous system (CNS) functions. Space radiation can also cause mutation in microorganisms, and potentially influence the evolution of life in space. Measurement of the space radiation environment has been conducted since the very beginning of the space program. Compared to the quantification of the space radiation environment using physical detectors, reports on the direct measurement of biological consequences of space radiation exposure have been limited, due primarily to the low dose and low dose rate nature of the environment. Most of the biological assays fail to detect the radiation effects at acute doses that are lower than 5 centiSieverts. In a recent study, we flew cultured confluent human fibroblasts in mostly G1 phase of the cell cycle to the International Space Station (ISS). The cells were fixed in space after arriving on the ISS for 3 and 14 days, respectively. The fixed cells were later returned to the ground and subsequently stained with the gamma-H2AX (Histone family, member X) antibody that are commonly used as a marker for DNA damage, particularly DNA double strand breaks, induced by both low-and high-linear energy transfer radiation. In our present study, the gamma-H2AX (Histone family, member X) foci were captured with a laser confocal microscope. To confirm that some large track-like foci were from space radiation exposure, we also exposed, on the ground, the same type of cells to both low-and high-linear energy transfer protons, and high-linear energy transfer Fe ions. In addition, we exposed the cells to low dose rate gamma rays, in order to rule out the possibility that the large track-like foci can be induced by chronic low-linear energy transfer radiation.

Lu, Tao↗

NASA NTRS2019

Using the NASA GeneLab Data System to Study the Metagenomes of Spaceships and Their Occupants

With humans pushing to live further off Earth for longer periods of time, it is increasingly important to understand the changes that occur in biological systems during spaceflight whether these be astronauts, their microbial commensals, or their plant-based life support systems. In a three-part presentation, we discuss GeneLab and recent discoveries regarding the microbiota of spacecrafts and space-flown animals. Part 1: GeneLab: Open Science for Life in Space, Jonathan Galazka, NASA Ames Research Center To accelerate the pace of discovery from precious spaceflight biological experiments, NASA as develop the GeneLab data system (genelab.nasa.gov), which allows unfettered access to omics data from spaceflight and spaceflight relevant experiments. GeneLab houses metagenomic datasets from spacecraft and relevant spacecraft models. Users can download this data and associated metadata to make new discoveries about how microbial communities may change and adapt to spaceflight.

Galazka, Jonathan M.↗

NASA NTRS1998

Effects of microgravity on osteoblast growth

Studies from space flights over the past two decades have demonstrated that basic physiological changes occur in humans during space flight. These changes include cephalic fluid shifts, loss of fluid and electrolytes, loss of muscle mass, space motion sickness, anemia, reduced immune response, and loss of calcium and mineralized bone. The cause of most of these manifestations is not known and until recently, the general approach was to investigate general systemic changes, not basic cellular responses to microgravity. Recently analyzed data from the 1973-1974 Skylabs disclose that there is a rise in the systemic hormone, cortisol, which may play a role in bone loss in flight. In two flights where bone growth was measured (Skylabs 3 and 4), the crew members had a significant loss of calcium accompanied by a rise in 24 hour urinary cortisol during the entire flight period. In ground-based work on osteoblasts, we have demonstrated that equivalent amounts of glucocorticoids can inhibit osteoblast cell growth. In addition, this laboratory has recently studied gene growth and activation of mouse osteoblasts (MC3T3-E1) during spaceflight. Osteoblast cells were grown on glass coverslips, loaded in the Biorack plunger boxes 18 hours before launch and activated 19 hours after launch in the Biorack incubator under microgravity conditions. The osteoblasts were launched in a serum deprived state, activated and collected in microgravity. Samples were collected at 29 hours after sera activation (0-g, n=4; 1-g, n=4). The osteoblasts were examined for changes in gene expression and cell morphology. Approximately one day after growth activation, remarkable differences were observed in gene expression in 0-g and 1-g flight samples. The 0-g activated cells had increased c-fos mRNA when compared to flight 1-g controls. The message of immediate early growth gene, cox-2 was decreased in the microgravity activated cells when compared to ground or 1-g flight controls. Cox-1 was not detected in any of the samples. There were no significant differences in the expression of actin mRNA between the 0-g and 1-g samples. These data indicate that quiescent osteoblasts are slower to enter the cell cycle in microgravity, suggesting that the force of gravity itself may be a significant factor in bone loss in spaceflight. Preliminary data from our STS 76 flight experiment support our hypothesis that a basic biological response occurs at the tissue, cellular, and molecular level in 0-g. Here we examine ground-based and space flown data on osteoblast growth in ground-based experiments mimicking space flight conditions and in microgravity to simulate lack of gravity stress to help us understand the mechanism of bone loss by experiments.

NASA Experiment Number 9403056↗