Editor's Note
This article was translated by the Time School Institute from The 2020 Biomanufacturing in Space Symposium on the impact of the cosmic microgravity environment on aging and disease research, and was originally published in the sub-journal Cell, a top scientific research journal.
The Space Biomaking Symposium focuses on the commercial development and transformation of relevant biomolecules and biomaterials in the space field, culminating in preclinical and clinical treatments. With the development of aerospace science and technology in recent years, low-Earth orbit with a unique microgravity environment has become a new type of "laboratory", and more and more scientific research has been carried out in space, including the study of aging and many diseases. Why do we conduct research in space? How does this affect aging and related diseases? What are we achieving so far? Let's take a look.
Original link:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2021.12.001
As we have introduced before, Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is obsessed with the stars and does not love anti-aging and longevity ("The world's richest man also spawned?"). Musk: It's better to fight aging than to have children, and it's enough to live to be 100 years old! 》）。 But the latest research shows that Musk's "Mars dream" can't be talked about without addressing aging-related problems, because the space environment will have some unexpected effects on astronauts.
Many related studies have found that microgravity in space can cause a series of changes in astronauts' physical systems, resulting in problems such as cardiovascular function degradation, skeletal muscle atrophy, bone loss and immune dysfunction. This is very similar to the symptoms caused by aging, but unlike aging, which takes years or even decades to manifest, everything often happens in just a few weeks, as if microgravity has pressed the acceleration button for the aging of the body.
Although this threatens the health of astronauts, it also brings new opportunities for the study of aging, disease, and stem cells, and has set off a wave of related research in the microgravity environment of space.
Stem cell research in space at the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station
Danger becomes opportunity
No.1
Muscle atrophy
Under microgravity conditions in space, astronauts lose skeletal muscle faster, which means that researchers can observe the development of diseases such as muscle atrophy in a shorter period of time.
At present, countries have carried out a number of studies in space to explore the mechanism of rodent muscle atrophy in the microgravity environment, explore the treatment targets of diseases such as sarcopenia, and test the therapeutic effects of various possible therapies, and it is expected to discover new ways of drug action.
No.2
Heart changes
Affected by microgravity, the physiology, structure and function of the astronaut's heart will change dramatically in a short period of time. In a microgravity environment for a long time, the heart will change in order to adapt to the external environment, resulting in astronauts returning to Earth, the heart is difficult to adapt to normal gravitational conditions, and symptoms such as erect intolerance occur.
Fortunately, after escaping from the microgravity environment, most of the changes in the astronaut's heart can return to normal levels. Studies have shown that astronauts who have lived in space for 6 months to 1 year will not increase the chance of cardiovascular disease after returning to Earth.
Note: Spaceflight can cause changes in the heart and arteries similar to accelerated aging
In two-dimensional stem cell models, three-dimensional tissue engineering models, and organoid models, the researchers induced rapid changes in cardiovascular phenotypes through microgravity and managed to reverse this change.
Microgravity has been found to alter gene expression and function in the heart at the cellular level. In addition, many heart problems are caused by the limited regenerative ability of the heart to repair the damage, but the progenitor cells of the heart that are cultured in space have enhanced their ability to proliferate and migrate due to changes in mechanical transduction pathways and cytoskeletal tissue, which is expected to improve the ability of the heart to repair.
No.3
osteoarthritis
Microgravity will not only accelerate the loss of skeletal muscle, but also accelerate bone loss, and long-term exposure to such an environment will even affect bone integrity, so that astronauts have symptoms similar to osteoporosis. In addition, because of the difference in gravity between Earth and space, the joint cartilage load of astronauts also changes, which may exacerbate cartilage destruction, leading to diseases such as osteoarthritis.
Because microgravity will accelerate the development of diseases such as osteoarthritis, it is easier for scientists to observe and carry out research. Currently, the International Space Station is conducting research on models of post-traumatic osteoarthritis, exploring new ways to treat related diseases and testing the effectiveness of potential therapeutic interventions.
No.4
senescence
Long-term spaceflight will cause astronauts to change telomere length, DNA damage and other changes, both of which are closely related factors to aging. Compared with human aging on Earth, the aging-related changes that occur in space tend to be more drastic and have a shorter time span, which is convenient for relevant research.
For example, NASA found that Scott Kelly, an astronaut who spent a year on the International Space Station, had lengthened his leukocyte telomere length during the mission and returned to Earth to the level of the posterior granule before he left for space. However, in the months that followed, the telomeres in Kelly's body shortened dramatically, and many telomeres were depleted.
Scott Kelly (right) and his twin brothers
Because telomere shortening and loss are closely related to diseases such as aging, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, changes in telomere length in Kelly's body are likely to provide a new target for the treatment of these diseases.
Stem cell research
In addition to the above-mentioned research on the establishment of relevant disease models in space, the space microgravity environment also opens up unprecedented opportunities for one field: stem cells and stem cell-derived products.
Stem cells can become any tissue the body needs, protecting, repairing, and even replacing damaged cells. Theoretically, mature stem cell therapies are close to any damage caused by aging in the human body, and are the most likely biotechnology to bring humans to immortality.
However, stem cell therapy is not yet mature, such as how to control the proliferation of stem cells to avoid tumors, how to control the differentiation and effect of stem cells, etc., are all urgent problems to be solved, and microgravity in space has brought new ideas.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) grown on the space station have higher immunosuppressive abilities than MSCs on Earth, and the therapeutic effect is more pronounced in models of traumatic brain injury. The researchers also found that microgravity environments are micro-helpful for stem cell culture, enabling stem cells to be produced in large quantities in a short period of time.
In addition, studies on Earth have shown that differences in culture conditions and cell sources can also have a significant impact on stem cell differentiation. Studies in space have also shown that the differentiation of stem cells cultured under microgravity conditions has varied greatly, but due to the different experimental conditions, equipment used and cell sources, it is not possible to infer credible conclusions from these studies, and further research is still needed.
Overall, significant advances in scientific research and exponential developments in space technology have paved the way for scientific research in space.
The time faction with the purpose of anti-aging has also reached a cooperation with the rocket faction of the aerospace company, signed a strategic agreement on space biotechnology projects, and joined the wave of space + anti-aging research. In the microgravity environment that cannot be reproduced in space, it is possible to create bioactive molecules that are completely different from those on Earth, and even to pick up some research projects that have failed on Earth, which will bring a new opportunity in another dimension to the anti-aging industry.
Although space science research also faces some problems, such as whether the research results obtained in space are applicable on Earth, how to commercialize related research so that it can be developed in the long run.
But no matter how many difficulties lie ahead, we believe the future will be as the researchers put it: "In the next five years, we will make cells and tissues in the universe in ways that would not be possible on Earth." While research and exploration is just beginning, we are turning science fiction into reality. ”
*On the 15th of last month, Time Pie joined hands with longevity technology industry leaders and annual heavy research professors to hold the 2022 Aging Intervention Forum. We did our best to present readers with an exchange event on anti-aging science and longevity technology industry. Now the live broadcast replay has been uploaded, if you want to communicate more deeply with teachers and anti-aging friends after watching the replay, welcome to leave a message at the end of the article.
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