When astronauts go into microgravity environments in space, they experience a range of physiological changes in many parts of the body. A team of researchers led by Joseph Wu, the director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, recently sent cardiomyocytes made from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) up to the International Space Station with astronauts in order to study changes in the cells. Through RNA sequencing, they found that many genes in the cells were expressed differently than ones that did not go into space, including genes for mitochondria metabolism. Their results were published in Stem Cell Reports today (November 7).
The increase in mitochondrial metabolism gene activity found in heart cells in microgravity has also been found in previous microgravity studies of blood cells, suggesting that certain cellular responses to spaceflight can occur across multiple types of cells, the authors write in the study. Wu tells The Scientist it’s ...
