T he Microgravity Research Program supports microgravity-based research in mammalian cell science and tissue engineering. Many of the scientists in the program culture cells and tissue using the NASA-designed rotating wall bioreactor, which models some aspects of a microgravity environment. Two scientists involved in cardiac research are finding promising results using the NASA bioreactor for heart muscle research, drug testing, and possibly the eventual growth of transplantable heart tissue.
Cardiovascular disease is responsible for a preponderance of health problems in the United States.
In the vast array of research conducted under the auspices of private and federal funding, there is a compelling need for isolated, bench top, tissue-based research. Standard cell culture of cardiac muscle cells seldom yields tissue modeling consistent with the development of new strategies that offer novel platforms for research and the eventual development of transplantable heart muscle. The NASA bioreactor affords such a strategy by promoting the assembly and maturation of small heart muscle constructs that bear remarkable resemblance and coordinated performance similarities with native heart muscle. The engineered constructs respond to cardioregulatory drugs and perform electrophysiologically such that their activity can be monitored using electrocardiography. The underdevelopment or absence of tissue structures in the heart can be life threatening.