Grow organs and food: why are Russian scientists sending stem cells into space?

Experiment MSK-2, conducted by the First Moscow State Medical University. TO THEM. Sechenov, in collaboration with RSC Energia and NPP BioTechSys, aims to study how various cell lines survive and behave in spaceflight conditions. In the future, its results will make it possible to understand what is happening in the body of astronauts and how these processes can be affected.

“Microgravity affects all processes occurring inside the cell, in particular calcium-sodium metabolism, which affects the state of bone tissue,” said Natalya Chepelova, a graduate student at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine of the Scientific and Technical Park of Biomedicine at Sechenov University. socialbites.ca. – Lack of gravity causes bone loss in astronauts, making it a serious obstacle to long-duration space missions. Our plans include developing bone and cartilage tissue models in microgravity.

Modeling and establishing the mechanisms that lead to the development of musculoskeletal diseases in the future may allow us to develop a solution for the prevention and treatment of osteopenia not only in astronauts, but also in people suffering from such socially significant diseases on Earth. like osteoporosis.”

In addition, in microgravity the heart works harder, which causes problems with the cardiovascular system. To study the consequences of such an overload well, cell models are also needed, the observation of which will take place in microgravity. It is nearly impossible to create them on Earth.

To grow the cells necessary for research directly on the ISS, you must first provide a three-dimensional collagen matrix bioreactor filled with stem cells from which nutrients are supplied. During the first flights, almost all cells died, but the modification of the reactor, which made it possible to more actively supply them with nutrients and remove cellular metabolic products, significantly increased their survival rate.

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“In previous experiments, several thousand cells were returned alive, although several million were sent. At the same time, their proliferative activity was significantly reduced,” Chepelova explains.

In recent flights, we have succeeded in finding that cells survive better when they arrive on Earth, retain the ability to multiply, and form monolayers when grown in Petri dishes. This is important for subsequent analysis because the more cells present, the more accurately the results of the experiment can be interpreted.

It is still difficult to answer how much cell survival has improved, analysis of the results is still ongoing.”

The results of the experiment pave the way for growing cells on space stations for a variety of both research and applied missions. In addition to studying osteoporosis, stem cells can be used to create tissue implants and grow organs that will be useful in future long-term space missions.

“Under microgravity conditions, cells form tissue without the influence of gravity, which to some extent mimics the conditions of the early stages of intrauterine development,” explains Chepelova. “Understanding the fundamentals of the underlying processes will be useful to bring results to clinical practice for injury reconstruction using tissue equivalents.”

It’s also possible to grow meat from stem cells for food, which would reduce the cost of food delivery, including for long-term space missions – a similar experiment to be However, executing the participants of the first completely private space mission of Axiom-1 with the help of already mature muscle tissue cells.

“Significant breakthroughs have yet to happen,” Chepelova says. “But for us, every successful experiment is a breakthrough on the road to greater discoveries.”

Roman Deev, Scientific Director of the Institute of Human Stem Cells, told socialbites.ca that the history of researching cell cultures living in space in our country and abroad is at least thirty years. The absence of gravity makes it possible to obtain the most unexpected tissue equivalents from cells, the formation of which is impossible under normal conditions. Under the conditions of microgravity, a number of important events occur in cells, unexplored on Earth – a change in their ability to bind to a substrate and to each other, restructuring of their skeleton and metabolic activity. This is based on changes in the regulation of gene activity in the cell nucleus.

“And if osteoporosis, known and understood by many, can still be subject to pharmacological and physical correction, then sarcopenia, a global problem of humanity, estimated to affect more than 200 million people over the age of 40, muscle tissue wasting, sarcopenia in the next decade, minimal in treatment. “And that means it becomes very important to decipher the epigenetic regulation of the formation of muscle cells and fibers.

From this perspective, space cellular experiments may be in great demand.”

Deev emphasizes that deciphering the molecular genetic mechanisms of regulation of cell life is extremely important for the medical and biological support of future long-term spaceflights. In addition to microgravity, living structures in space face solar radiation and other harmful factors that must be studied before they cross the deep space threshold.

As for gastronomic prospects, technologies to gain tangible volumes of muscle tissue at a reasonable cost are still out of reach on Earth. In this sense, one cannot agree with Chepelova – significant breakthroughs have not yet come, ”says the expert.

Experiments with cells will continue until 2023. During this time, the scientists plan to find out how successfully cells will differentiate under microgravity — transforming from stem cells into mature cells with specific functions. This will allow the cultivation of tissue samples for research, nutritional and medical applications.