Lab-Grown Muscle Launched Into Space to Study Effects on Body

"Before long-term space travel is a reality, scientists must solve a hurdle of biology: Our bodies break down in space.

Some 40% of the human body by weight is skeletal muscle -- the kind that moves limbs and joints and holds the body upright. Strong and resilient, this tissue repairs quickly.

But 250 miles above the Earth's surface, in the reduced gravity of the International Space Station, astronauts' muscles get weaker. To study the phenomenon, a team at Stanford School of Medicine grew human muscle cells in a laboratory on Earth and then launched the samples to the ISS, where astronauts tended to them for a week.

Growing in enclosed chambers, supported on scaffolds made of collagen, the space cells formed shorter muscle fibers than cells in identical conditions on Earth. The changes in biology were similar to those in a disorder linked to age called sarcopenia, in which muscles weaken and waste away.

"Microgravity does have profound effects on the body," said Ngan Huang, a bioengineer at Stanford whose lab sent the samples to the space station and published the results of the experiment in the journal Stem Cell Reports in July.

In fact, the space environment triggers a suite of changes. The immune system is shocked into a state of high alert, as if under attack by infection. Stem cells in the bone marrow are slow to manufacture red blood cells, turning astronauts anemic. Heart muscle weakens, and bone density decreases.

"It's an accelerated model of aging," said Christopher Mason, a geneticist at Weill Cornell Medicine who has studied the biochemistry of people who have returned from space. Most changes are temporary; astronauts tend to recover soon after they are back on terra firma.

Scientists need setups like Huang's because it isn't practical to experiment on the astronaut crew. Engineered tissue that mimics the human body is "the best way to get the most information that is the most useful," Mason said.

Huang and team were able to show that they could ward off some of the biological changes triggered by microgravity with either of two drugs known to help tissue repair.

"Especially for the longer space flights, it will become very important to think of ways to combat the effects of microgravity," Huang said. "This could be a platform for identifying drugs that astronauts or space travelers would be able to take to help them."" [1]

That's right. We can't give astronauts many thousands of different molecules in tests because some of them could seriously harm them. The use of cells is more rational.

1. Lab-Grown Muscle Launched Into Space to Study Effects on Body. Subbaraman, Nidhi.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 30 Aug 2024: A.3.