Bioengineered heart samples on ISS confirm that weightlessness weakens and ages the heart
Using 48 bioengineered heart samples that spent 30 days on ISS in 2020, scientists have confirmed other research that showed weightlessness not only weakens the heart, it ages it as well.
In addition to losing strength, the heart muscle tissues in space developed irregular beating (arrhythmias)—disruptions that can cause a human heart to fail. Normally, the time between one beat of cardiac tissue and the next is about a second. This measure, in the tissues aboard the space station, grew to be nearly five times longer than those on Earth, although the time between beats returned nearly to normal when the tissues returned to Earth.
The scientists also found, in the tissues that went to space, that sarcomeres—the protein bundles in muscle cells that help them contract—became shorter and more disordered, a hallmark of human heart disease. In addition, energy-producing mitochondria in the space-bound cells grew larger, rounder and lost the characteristic folds that help the cells use and produce energy.
Finally …[t]he tissues at the space station showed increased gene production involved in inflammation and oxidative damage, also hallmarks of heart disease.
None of this is ground-breaking, as it confirms numerous other past studies. What it does do however is confirm that long-term weightlessness is not good for a person’s heart. Many studies have shown that these issues mostly go away once astronauts return to Earth, but for any journey to Mars, involving two years in weightlessness, this data suggests the health risks will be far higher.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Using 48 bioengineered heart samples that spent 30 days on ISS in 2020, scientists have confirmed other research that showed weightlessness not only weakens the heart, it ages it as well.
In addition to losing strength, the heart muscle tissues in space developed irregular beating (arrhythmias)—disruptions that can cause a human heart to fail. Normally, the time between one beat of cardiac tissue and the next is about a second. This measure, in the tissues aboard the space station, grew to be nearly five times longer than those on Earth, although the time between beats returned nearly to normal when the tissues returned to Earth.
The scientists also found, in the tissues that went to space, that sarcomeres—the protein bundles in muscle cells that help them contract—became shorter and more disordered, a hallmark of human heart disease. In addition, energy-producing mitochondria in the space-bound cells grew larger, rounder and lost the characteristic folds that help the cells use and produce energy.
Finally …[t]he tissues at the space station showed increased gene production involved in inflammation and oxidative damage, also hallmarks of heart disease.
None of this is ground-breaking, as it confirms numerous other past studies. What it does do however is confirm that long-term weightlessness is not good for a person’s heart. Many studies have shown that these issues mostly go away once astronauts return to Earth, but for any journey to Mars, involving two years in weightlessness, this data suggests the health risks will be far higher.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
We evolved to live in gravity. Whuttasurprise.
So based on this, are we doing tests to see how much gravity is needed in centrifuge? I mean if 10% gravity had 90% of the loss as 100% we could save a lot of money by not spinning hard enough to replicate earth gravity…
And the gravity “results” take nothing else into account. So they are basically worthless.
“This here tissue sample is identical to in vivo.” Old guy in charge of the interns rears back and lands a serious punch…
What I don’t understand is why do we keep running these studies if the result is the same every time. Are they hoping for a different outcome?
Until we have a centrifuge that can simulate different levels of gravity, these experiments should be put on pause and others conducted.
Joe, there’s no other reason to run the International Scam Station besides bad science.
We just need to get “THERE” more quickly. .
Well, the moon has 1/6 th gravity. It would seem a likely place to set up labs that involve partial gravity without the physics headache of spin stations, or the complexity of trying to dock with a spin station.
We should have had wheel stations up there decades ago. Those are space stations.
There you control space platforms with microgravity experiments with repairs a walk away—not a launch away.