A gentle rumble ran under a researcher'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.
A gentle rumble ran under a researcher'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 her better understand muscle impairment, often seen in astronauts and older adults, and test drugs to counter the condition.
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. "We think our research on muscle chips in microgravity may have broader implications on sarcopenia," says Huang."Sarcopenia usually takes decades to develop on Earth, and we think that microgravity may have some ability to accelerate the disease process in orders of days."
"This concept of engineered tissue chip platform in microgravity is a potentially transformative tool that could allow us to study a variety of diseases and do drug screening without animal or human subjects," says Huang.Astronauts have been able to track their muscle health in spaceflight for the first time using a handheld device, revealing which muscles are most at risk of weakening in low gravity conditions. ...
Fitness Stem Cells Neuropathy Space Station Space Probes Space Exploration NASA
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