Astronauts Robert L. Curbeam Jr. (left) and Christer Fugelsang aboard the International Space Station
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
How spaceflight affects astronauts' health may be better understood thanks to the creation of the first “space-omics” biobank, a collection of thousands of blood and tissue samples and medical information taken on multiple space missions.
These include missions to the International Space Station as well as SpaceX's Inspiration 4, the first private spaceflight to send four non-government-trained astronauts into space for three days in 2021.
The resource, called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), contains detailed medical data, collectively known as biomarkers, such as DNA damage and changes in people's gene activity and immune system function.
Space flight is known to pose certain health risks. For example, astronauts experience reduced bone density and muscle mass due to weightlessness, and high levels of radiation in space can damage cells and DNA, causing a variety of health effects on the body. Astronauts are more likely to develop heart disease Later years and Some people have experienced a decrease in vision After going into space.
By consistently collecting astronauts' medical data through the SOMA biobank, researchers may be able to better understand these changes and develop ways to mitigate them, the researchers say. Christopher Mason He is a professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and helped establish the biobank.
“Biomarkers don't necessarily translate into anything clinically meaningful, but they're a good way to understand how this unique environment is affecting us.” Damien Bailey The researchers are from the University of South Wales in the UK, but were not involved in the study.
One of the findings from the Inspiration 4 mission was that although astronauts experienced changes in numerous biomarkers, most measurements returned to normal within a few months of returning to Earth.
This suggests that sending private citizens into space poses no greater health risks than sending professional astronauts, Mason said. “Instead of training them for decades, we can start opening up space to more people.”
Results from Inspiration 4, which had two men and two women on board, also suggested that changes in gene activity returned to normal more quickly in women. This may be because women's bodies have to be able to cope with the possibility of pregnancy, Mason says. “Being able to withstand big changes in physiology and fluid dynamics could be great for managing pregnancy, but it could also help manage the stresses of spaceflight.”
Timothy Etheridge A researcher from the University of Exeter in the UK says it would be beneficial to have a common resource that researchers around the world can use. “We need a consistent approach to collecting samples,” he says.
Thomas Smith The researcher, from King's College London, says understanding the health effects of spaceflight will become even more important if longer-term missions take place, such as trips to Mars. “Anything that leads to longer-term missions makes it even more important to know what's going on and, ideally, to be able to address it,” he says.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
