We also may be better able to answer the more immediate question for NASA, how to reduce muscle and bone loss during space flight. Previous flights of muscle and bone cells using this cell culture system suggested that bone and muscle cells may mature differently in space than on Earth. Significant changes at the cellular level during space flight could affect the strength of bone and muscle. Preliminary data suggest that muscle cells grown in space lose their ability to convert from muscle cells to muscle fibers following flight. In addition, the matrix produced by bone cells in flight may not mineralize the same way as bone cells on Earth.
Bone matrix is the organic structure onto which minerals are deposited.
Dr. Ruth Globus of the Veterans Administration Medical Center and the University of California, both in San Francisco, will study the response of rat bone cells during the flight. She will examine the ability of bone cells to mature and produce materials required for mineralization of the skeleton. Her co-investigator is Dr. Stephen Doty of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. His co-investigators are Dr. George Kearney, Maj. They will examine samples of space-flown muscle cells to learn if they mature and form muscle fibers after return to Earth.