The growth and spread of thyroid cancer cells can be prevented through low gravity, scientists claim.
A "vomit comet," an airplane used to simulate microgravity and train astronauts, is being used by experimental biologists to study the spread of the disease, UK MailOnline reported.
Using a parabolic flight, Dutch researchers subjected thyroid cancer cell cultures to 22 seconds of simulated microgravity. They found that genes and proteins behaved differently.
According to UK MailOnline, scientists from the Department of Oral Cell Biology, Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), compared the results of the cancer cells to some that had spent 10 days aboard China's Shenzou 8 spacecraft in 2011.
They discovered that genes and proteins involved in malignant cell growth become less aggressive than they would have been on Earth, PopSci reported.
"Gravity can lead to changes in cell proliferation, differentiation, signaling, and gene expression," they wrote in the study published in the FASEB (Federation of American Scientists for Experimental Biology) Journal. "At first glance, gravitational forces seem too small to affect bodies with the size of a cell. Thus, the initial response to gravity is both puzzling and important for understanding physiological changes in space."
They continued, "This also offers a unique environment to study the mechanical response of cells."
While the scientists stopped short of recommending trips into space for cancer sufferers in their study, they think research into how the disease reacts in microgravity environments could unlock secrets of cells' behavior and ultimately lead to better treatments, according to UK MailOnline.
Accounting for almost 1 percent of all new cases, thyroid cancer is the 20th most common cancer in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK's 2010 statistics.
In 2013, there were 60,220 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. and over half-a-million people living with the disease in the country, the U.S. National Cancer Institute reported.
"NASA explained that space provides ideal conditions for studying cancer cells, as cells in the human body normally grow within support structures made up of proteins and carbohydrates, which is how organs and tumors maintain their three-dimensional shapes," UK MailOnline reported. "In lab settings however, cells grow flat and spread out in sheets. Because they don't duplicate the shapes they make in the body, they don't behave in the same way either, which poses problems for scientists trying to unlock their secrets."
Scientists have been studying the effect of gravity on cells in microgravity conditions since the 1970s. In space, cells outside a living organism can still form three-dimensional groupings that resemble what they look like inside the body, UK MailOnline reported.
Changes in immune cells, including changes in cell-signaling cytokines, (small proteins secreted to mediate immunity and inflammation), have been seen through experiments on the space shuttles and the space stations.
The research indicates that the immune system is suppressed in microgravity.
"The architecture of cells changes in microgravity, with changes to cell walls, internal organization and even their basic shapes," UK MailOnline reported. "A series of experiments aboard the International Space Station examined changes to human colon, ovarian and other cancer cells."
Reduced production of cytokines in a human Mullerian ovarian tumor cell line were observed in one investigation, UK MailOnline reported.
Understanding changes in production of these proteins could help researchers comprehend the mechanisms of tumor cell development, NASA's scientists said.
