Small roundworms brought aboard the International Space Station could help treat conditions characterized by muscle and bone loss.
The findings could lead to new treatments for bone and muscle loss in humans living in space and could even have implications for humans on Earth who suffer from similar conditions, NASA's Johnson Space Center reported.
"Spaceflight-induced health changes, such as decreases in muscle and bone mass, are a major challenge facing our astronauts," said Julie Robinson, NASA's Chief Scientist for the International Space Station Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We investigate solutions on the station not only to keep astronauts healthy as the agency considers longer space exploration missions, but also to help those on Earth who have limited activity as a result of aging or illness."
An upcoming study will look at the cytoskeleton of the roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans) to see how the system is altered in response to microgravity. A current investigation is in the process of growing four generations of worms, which will return to Earth this month.
"The astronauts will cultivate multiple generations of the organism, so we can examine the organisms in different states of development," said Atsushi Higashitani, principal investigator for both investigations with Tohoku University in Miyagi, Japan. "Our studies will help clarify how and why these changes to health take place in microgravity and determine if the adaptations to space are transmitted from one cell generation to another without changing the basic DNA of an organism. Then, we can investigate if those effects could be treated with different medicines or therapies."
Understanding the molecular changes that occur microgravity could help find new ways to fight bone and muscle loss often seen in aging and extended bed rest.
"This simple, tiny roundworm could lead to a cure for symptoms affecting millions of the aging and infirm population of Earth, and the astronauts orbiting it, potentially offering a solution to a major problem in an extremely small package," the researchers stated.
