How does long-duration space missions influence human stem cells? This is what a recent study published in Cell Stem Cell hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how human spaceflight influences stem cell aging. This study has the potential to help researchers, mission planners, astronauts, and the public better understand the health risks of long-term space missions, specifically at a time when several countries are planning to send humans to the Moon before the end of the decade.
For the study, the researchers sent a series of experiments to the International Space Station (ISS), which was conducted by the astronaut crew over several months, to ascertain the long-term impacts of spaceflight on human stem cells due to microgravity and exposure to higher doses of radiation. In the end, the experiments showed that long-term spaceflight accelerates stem cell aging while reducing their ability to produce new and healthy cells. In addition to learning more about spaceflight, these findings could also help researchers better understand stem cells’ relationship to aging and other diseases like cancer back on Earth.
“These findings are critically important because they show that the stressors of space — like microgravity and cosmic galactic radiation — can accelerate the molecular aging of blood stem cells,” said Dr. Catriona Jamieson, M.D., who is the director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute, professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and a co-author on the study. “Understanding these changes not only informs how we protect astronauts during long-duration missions but also helps us model human aging and diseases like cancer here on Earth. This is essential knowledge as we enter a new era of commercial space travel and research in low earth orbit."
Image of Dr. Catriona Jamieson, M.D. (Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences)
As noted, this study comes as several countries, specifically the United States and China, are planning to send their own astronauts to the lunar surface before the end of the decade, with the long-term goal of sending humans to Mars sometime in the future.
What new discoveries about spaceflight and stem cells will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Cell Stem Cell, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon for Apollo 11. (Credit: NASA)
