Experiments in space are considered extremely valuable since you don’t have gravity weighing down on the tissues. Gravity influences cellular behaviour by impacting how protein and genes interact inside the cells. This creates tissue that is polarised – a beyond important step for natural organ development. Bioreactors used on earth have inherent limitations that hold scientists back from reproducing 3-dimensional tissues in labs for transplantations. In space, cells can freely organise themselves into this structure without the need for a structure to provide support, called a scaffold substrate.
This is exactly what is happening at the ISS. Researchers are learning new ways of building human tissues, such as blood vessels and cartilage. These experiments aren’t happening for use on earth, but astronauts as well. Staying in space without gravity for too long can have its physiological altercations, some of them permanent. Studying the before and after of astronauts’ organs from lengthy space flights reveals what goes wrong with their body parts, but provides only small insights on the mechanisms responsible for these observed altercations. So, growing organs in space and monitoring their growth can disclose ways on how to counteract the altercations astronauts face. These studies will improve the generation of artificial organs that are used for testing drugs and treatments on Earth, and A good outcome from them will have profound implications on future space colonisation – when humans go to live and reproduce in space. An additional bonus from research in space could possibly also mean better treatments for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions that affect millions on earth.
Writer: Ariya Gupta
1/07/2020
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