ISS research suggests weightlessness accelerates aging in stem cells
According to a study that flew stem cells on four separate missions to ISS ranging in length from 32 to 45 days, weightlessness appears to age stem cells significantly.
Researchers from University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute have discovered that spaceflight accelerates the aging of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are vital for blood and immune system health. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, the team used automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven stem cell-tracking nanobioreactor systems in four SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station (ISS) to track stem cell changes in real time. The findings show that the cells lost some of their ability to make healthy new cells, became more prone to DNA damage and showed signs of faster aging at the ends of their chromosomes after spaceflight — all signs of accelerated aging.
Upon return to Earth the study also found the cells recovered somewhat.
You can read the peer-reviewed paper here.
In a sense, this study confirms what numerous other research has found, that weightlessness mimics the conditions of old age, and causes the same physical decline seen in the elderly. It also shows that much of that damage in weightlessness is transient, recovering upon return to Earth.
This research once again highlights the imperative need to study the impact on various levels of artificial gravity on the human body. Will producing a 10% g environment — using centrifugal force — mitigate these negative impacts? Or will we have to simulate a full 1 g environment? Or something in between?
The first option is much easier in terms of engineering. The last will be complex and take time to develop.
At the moment almost no research has been done in this area. And it needs to happen soon, if people intend to go to Mars in the near future. Such journeys, six months minimum in weightlessness, are likely to leave the passengers somewhat debilitated upon arrival, no matter how much they exercise along the way. And being debilitated is not a good condition for a pioneer trying to build a new civilization on an alien world.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
According to a study that flew stem cells on four separate missions to ISS ranging in length from 32 to 45 days, weightlessness appears to age stem cells significantly.
Researchers from University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute have discovered that spaceflight accelerates the aging of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are vital for blood and immune system health. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, the team used automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven stem cell-tracking nanobioreactor systems in four SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station (ISS) to track stem cell changes in real time. The findings show that the cells lost some of their ability to make healthy new cells, became more prone to DNA damage and showed signs of faster aging at the ends of their chromosomes after spaceflight — all signs of accelerated aging.
Upon return to Earth the study also found the cells recovered somewhat.
You can read the peer-reviewed paper here.
In a sense, this study confirms what numerous other research has found, that weightlessness mimics the conditions of old age, and causes the same physical decline seen in the elderly. It also shows that much of that damage in weightlessness is transient, recovering upon return to Earth.
This research once again highlights the imperative need to study the impact on various levels of artificial gravity on the human body. Will producing a 10% g environment — using centrifugal force — mitigate these negative impacts? Or will we have to simulate a full 1 g environment? Or something in between?
The first option is much easier in terms of engineering. The last will be complex and take time to develop.
At the moment almost no research has been done in this area. And it needs to happen soon, if people intend to go to Mars in the near future. Such journeys, six months minimum in weightlessness, are likely to leave the passengers somewhat debilitated upon arrival, no matter how much they exercise along the way. And being debilitated is not a good condition for a pioneer trying to build a new civilization on an alien world.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Has there ever been a study to show what increased gravity does to cells?
GeorgeC asked, “Has there ever been a study to show what increased gravity does to cells?”
As far as I know, no. To do so is as challenging as studying lower gravity environments. Any Earth-based simulation has great limits, and off Earth it requires the same technology that we presently don’t have or have devoted little effort to fly.
Increased gravity studies could be done for a fraction of the cost of reduced gravity studies. A large volume centrifuge that took the occupants up to 1.5 or 2 gee for extended tours should be doable for several million. The train on a banked track being one of the often suggested for low gee worlds. a 45 degree bank should net about 1.41 gee. It would take power to compensate for friction and drag. Just take the gee calcs for your favorite station and modify them for the centrifugal and natural gees. The 1.41 above would have been the result of 1 gee centrifugal and 1 gee natural as 2 sides of a right triangle with the 1.41 being the hypotenuse for simple figuring..
That a quarter of the 21st century has passed–and we STILL don’t have rotating stations–has me steamed.
Public, private, whatever.
Is it possible that something else about being in space is causing the problem? I would think weightlessness, to some degree, mimics the environment of a fetus floating in the amniotic fluid and that it would improve cell function.
Ryan Lawson: What you “think” unfortunately is not what more than a half century of data now shows, that weightlessness in the short run is harmless but in the long run causes cardio-vascular issues, loss of bone density, spinal back pain, and vision damage. This new research only adds to the list.
So far, the evidence suggests that people mostly recover completely from all these problems, but the longer they are in space, the longer the recovery period.
Thus, for humans going to Mars or any extended interplanetary trip, it increasingly appears necessary that they live in some artificial gravity environment during the journey. Reproducing 1g is challenging in terms of engineering. If we could determine the least amount of gravity needed to mitigate these issues we could then build practical interplanetary vessels — at the lowest cost — for transporting passengers throughout the solar system.
Ryan–
In Space: no one can hear you scream, there are no shockwaves, it’s very cold, and there is no buoyancy, and I think that’s what you were getting it.
–The feeling of being weightless in water on Earth, however, is a perceptual thing and not an actual physical thing.
When astronaut’s practice in water for example, their total weight is carefully balanced so they don’t sink or float but to maintain a neutral buoyancy, which simulates the perception of being weightless. (
–But everything on Earth is subject to a 1G acceleration “down” toward the center, whether you perceive it or not.
“Buoyancy, however, can occur only in a non-inertial reference frame, which either has a gravitational field or is accelerating due to a force other than gravity defining a “downward” direction.”
About the “best” comparative data we have, unfortunately a data point of 1, is the Scott & Mark Kelly Twin-Study. And everything else also points to negative cumulative stuff happening based on time, with lack of gravity being the major variable.
Until we crack this “gravity problem,” we might be able to land on Mars, but we’ll never drag our Jello muscle selves out of the spacecraft.
Robert and Wayne – I guess I should have further clarified. I am fully aware of the effects of weightlessness on the human body overall, as a whole. Muscles and bones atrophy due to lack of stresses and the body constantly adapts to what is needed. If you don’t need the muscle or bone it starts going away. I was thinking in terms of individual cells and that lack of stresses would aid them in longevity. Also, would protein folding operations be more efficient internal to a cell somewhat like the studies of medical protein manufacturing in zero g?
Maybe space-borne humans have to evolve into gelatinous blobs with tentacle arms :-p
Ryan–
(way beyond my expertise, just thinking out loud!)
-I’m thinking we cannot escape the fact that everything biological on Earth has evolved under gravity and we have little information on the sufficient or necessary amount required to maintain our optimal performance.
-The whole protein-folding thing’ is extremely interesting, but I have no clue about research into folding dynamics in low or zero G.
-I believe the stuff that Varda is doing, for example, mainly involves growing high-purity crystalline pharmaceuticals.
Tangentially but related:
“The Day Ritonavir Vanished”
Manufacturing Chemical Allotropes and Polymorph’s
https://youtu.be/PccOwGEbtQU
9:47
Interesting vid link wayne, I’m forwarding that to my polymer chemist coworkers.