The International Space Station is used for scientific experiments, among many other missions, including testing whether stem cells develop better in orbit than those on Earth.
Scientists at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles are trying to find new ways to generate large clusters of a type of stem cell that can make almost any type of cell in the body and can be used to treat many diseases. .
Over the weekend, the cells arrived at the International Space Station on a supply ship.
The experiment is the latest research project involving the launch of stem cells into space, some of which are aimed at tackling the challenge of Earth’s cell development. Others are investigating how space travel affects the body’s cells. Others also help to better understand diseases such as cancer.
Six previous projects from the United States, China, and Italy sent different types of stem cells to study the effects of microgravity on heart function at the cellular level.
But ongoing clinical trials with stem cells are targeting conditions such as macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease and damage from heart attacks. Jeffrey Millman, a biomedical engineering specialist at the University of Washington in St. Louis, is also participating in research that could lead to a new approach to treating type 1 diabetes.
Because the planet’s gravity makes it difficult to grow the large amounts of cells needed for future treatments, which may require more than a billion per patient, scientists are trying to find optimal conditions to achieve the goal this.
“With the technology currently available, we don’t have the capacity to do what is needed, even if the FDA were to immediately approve any of these treatments,” Millman said.
The problem, according to Millman, is in large bioreactors where the cells have to be stirred vigorously, clump or fall to the bottom of the tank, and the stress can cause most of the cells to die.
“In microgravity (or zero gravity), there is no force on the cells, so they can only grow in a different way,” said Clive Svendsen, executive director of the Institute of Regenerative Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The Cedars-Sinai team sent induced pluripotent stem cells, which many scientists see as ideal starting materials for all kinds of personalized cell-based therapies.
They carry the patient’s DNA and their versatility makes them similar to embryonic stem cells, simply reprogrammed from adult skin or blood cells.
In their NASA-funded experiment, they contained a container the size of a shoebox, bags filled with spools of cells, and all the pumps and solutions needed to keep them alive for four weeks. The shipment also contained neural stem cells from Svendsen.
Scientists used stem cells derived from their own white blood cells, because they could easily get approval.
They will conduct the experiment remotely, using a box of cells on the ground for comparison. When both cargo capsules return from SpaceX, they will receive the results of the space experiment in five weeks.
The study is designed to pave the way for further NASA-funded research. “If they can figure out how to make billions of cells in orbit, the impact could be huge,” Svendsen said. Said.
During the launch of the same charge, researchers from the University of California, San Diego sent blood stem cells to the space station in a repeat of an experiment they conducted last year to see if the low orbit of Earth causes faster aging of cells. , which leads to problems that pave the way for precancerous changes. One of the goals of this experiment was to protect the health of the astronauts.
Afshin Beheshti, a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, said scientists are just beginning to understand some of the dangers of space travel. There are more unknowns in space than there are known. Any new type of experiment will shed light on how the body responds to the space environment.”
Ultimately, Beheshti added, the search should yield more than practical basic solutions, such as new drugs. It will also help fulfill distant human aspirations, such as living on other planets.
source: phys.org
Source: Arabic RT
