A gentle rumble ran under Ngan Huang's feet as a rocket carrying her research-;live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips-;lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into the sky to the International Space Station National Laboratory. These chips would help Huang better understand muscle impairment, often seen in astronauts and older adults, and test drugs to counter the condition. Now, the results are back.
Reporting in a study published July 25 in Stem Cell Reports , Huang's team showed that space-traveling muscle had metabolic changes that indicate impaired muscle regeneration and gene activities associated to age-related muscle loss called sarcopenia. But drug treatment partially prevented microgravity's adverse effects. Space is a really unique environment that accelerates qualities associated with aging and also impairs many healthy processes.
Astronauts come back with muscle atrophy, or a reduction of muscle function, because the muscle isn't being actively used in the absence of gravity. As space travel becomes more common and available to civilians, it's important to understand what happens to our muscle in microgravity." Huang (@NganHuang), associate professor at Stanford University To understand the effects of microgravity on muscles, the researchers launched muscle chips-;bioengineered packages of oriented muscle cells on patterned biomaterials that mimic the structure of real muscles-;into space to grow for seven days under astronauts' care.
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