A new study from researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the University of Chicago shows signs that heart muscle cells aren’t negatively impacted by space travel.
Researchers analyzed heart cells, specifically those responsible for making the heart contract, from mice that had spent 38 days in space. Those cells were just as strong as those of control mice who stayed on the ground.
The study was recently published in npj Microgravity.
Pooneh Bagher, PhD, associate professor in the UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, was previously involved in research projects funded by NASA prior to coming to UNMC.
Her previous work at Texas A&M University involved studying the coronary artery. She had collected heart tissues from the mice and stored them.
She connected with co-senior author Jonathan Kirk, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, when he spoke at a seminar on the UNMC campus. He spoke about his research studies, weaving in Star Wars references.
Dr. Bagher, a self-proclaimed “space geek,” approached Dr. Kirk to share her previous research and to ask about collaborating to further study the frozen heart cells.
Researchers studied the cells, analyzing whether the muscle contracted properly after space flight. The machinery, Dr. Bagher said, was fine, but some inflammation was present.
“The unique things his lab was able to bring mirror the things I can do on a vascular level,” Dr. Bagher said. “You can’t test the sarcomere in an astronaut. From the perspective of fundamental mechanism and machinery of the cell, that’s what really made this unique.”
Dr. Bagher is currently working on projects that focus on the impact of spaceflight on the vasculature.