Stem Cell Space Odyssey
Stem cells do some weird things when they are in a weightless or near-weightless environment, and scientists wants to learn more about it by sending stem cells on a space adventure!
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The World Stem Cell Summit gathered scientists on December 8th to discuss their stem cell research in microgravity. Microgravity can affect cells differently depending on age, making it an interesting field of research related to life and health in general.
Leaving the earth and going into low earth orbit, our hair might go flailing around, but there are health risks with that loss of gravity. The cardiovascular system can be affected and make some astronauts prone to arrhythmia and atrophy of the heart. Additionally, there are other dangers, like cosmic radiation, going stir crazy, space fungus, the muscle loss or eye pressure and other bodily issues that can develop, and most of all basic human error when the consequence can be exposure to the vacuum of space.
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Arun Sharma, from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, did research on what microgravity does to the heart muscle, specifically "how heart muscle tissue, contracts, grows and changes (gene expression) in microgravity". Heart stem cells were created from reprogrammed adults skin and blood cells and sent on the SpaceX CRS-9 mission this past July. These cardiomyocyte heart cells stayed on the ISS for a month. A second control set of heart cells from the same batch stayed on earth.
SpaceX CRS-9 Launch
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What has been noticed, is that the return blood from space mimicked the natural aging process, but on fast-forward.
So long term, space travel is bad for the human body. But, Mary Kearns-Jonker, a transplant immunologist of Loma Linda University in California, does experiments with simulated gravity and tissue-specific stem cells that can develop into heart muscle, like Sharma grew. These cardiac prognitor cells are placed into a clinostat to constantly rotate them and minimize gravitational force.
Her findings show that newborn cells, not cells from adults, proliferate better under microgravity. They revert back to a more primitive state where they then move forward with a boost of efficiency. Microgravity can activate and increase DNA repair genes and telomerase reverse transcriptase in neonatal stem cells, but not adults stem cells.
Stem cell dish
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The neonatal cells acquire dedifferentiation characteristics of reverting to more primitive developmental stage, which allow them to regenerate better, and potentially become more types of cells other than heart cells or a few others. The adult cells did not have the same repair capacity, but did have elevated markers for cardiomyogenic differentiation to produce more heart cells.
This research is limited, as there is still gravity on earth. In March 2017, some cells are taking flight to the ISS as well and finding out if the age-dependent results bear fruit up in zero-G.
Visions for the future abound with possibility. Perhaps a brief stint into space can do some wonders for healing? Maybe after a little injection? Or maybe skip the flight, and just send cargo to get changed, then back to earth for assimilation into a human body?
Another stem cell researcher from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, Abba Zubair has such a vision of growing stem cells in a lab on the ISS for treatment on earth. Zubair's work deals with hemorrhagic strokes, where bleeding is caused by ruptured blood vessels in the brain. A new trial test is being developed with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to "rescue" injured neurons.
Neuron
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The problem with this treatment, is that it takes 100-200 million of these cells for one treatment. This takes time and money to grow. But the evidence from Kearns-Jonker and Sharma show that cells happily proliferate in lower gravity conditions. Zubair wants to see if these new cells with also boom and grow in space.
One thing that remains to be tested, even if all the growth can be done in space, is if these changed and space-grown cells can be safely injected into humans. Maybe something else happens that will make them less viable than earth proliferated cells.
We will have to wait until sometime in 2017, for the return of the cell space odyssey, to see more results from this type of research.
Thank you for your time and attention! I appreciate the knowledge reaching more people. Take care. Peace.
References:
- Why are scientists shooting stem cells into space?
- Effects of Microgravity on Stem Cell-Derived Heart Cells (Heart Cells)
- From shrinking spines to space fungus: The top five dangers of space travel
- Simulated Microgravity Exerts an Age-Dependent Effect on the Differentiation of Cardiovascular Progenitors Isolated from the Human Heart
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2016-12-12, 7pm
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In lieu of anything intelligent to say, let me tell you that I hate space fungus. I caught if off a chick when I was younger and it's harder to get rid of than the clap!
LOL... I hope you're joking :/
Of course...Good article!