Study Finds Heart Cells 'Perform Poorly in Space' with Implications for Long-Term Missions

TapTechNews October 1st news, in order to study the impact of space flight on the hearts of astronauts, scientists from Johns Hopkins University sent 48 bioengineered heart tissue samples to the International Space Station for 30 days of monitoring and compared them with the same samples on Earth.

The researchers observed the effects of low gravity on the strength of cell contractions (that is, twitching force) and any irregular beating patterns. The results are worrying - the scientists found that heart cells perform poorly in space, with a beating intensity of only about half that of the control samples on Earth. And there is inflammation and oxidative damage, which are similar to the changes that occur in the bodies of heart disease patients.

TapTechNews noted that previous studies have found that astronauts show decreased myocardial function and arrhythmias, that is, cardiac arrhythmias, after returning to Earth. Although some effects will subside over time, but not all effects will disappear. This will have a significant impact on long-term space missions, including possible lunar trips and even one day trips to Mars.

The researchers used the organ-on-a-chip technology to culture bioengineered heart tissues made from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in microfluidic chips. The chip simulates the structure and function of an adult heart. In the space environment, these heart cells show higher levels of inflammation and oxidative damage, and the proteins responsible for heart cell contractions (sarcomeres) become shorter and more disordered. In addition, the mitochondria (energy factories) of the cells become larger and rounder, losing their characteristic shape, which further indicates that heart cells have experienced severe stress or dysfunction in the space environment, which may lead to impaired energy production and thus weakened heart cell contraction force and overall cell health decline.

The researchers plan to continue to improve their heart-on-a-chip to collect more data to determine how this damage occurs at the molecular level and find ways to keep astronauts healthy during long-term space flight missions.