BACKGROUND Revealing data on the role of vitamin D and calcium supplementation in bone health has led some to suggest that vitamin D and calcium treatment could also play a role in protecting bone against microgravity-induced mineral loss. OBJECTIVES The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of vitamin D and calcium administration on microscopic and densitometric changes of ...

Experiments have been carried out with extremely lean, quiescent propane-air mixtures to examine the behavior of irregular flame propagation and to examine the lean limits of flame propagation in a tube under microgravity. The microgravity technique achieved in a freely falling chamber is employed because the realizations of symmetrical flame propagations in a tube are possible. Experimental co...

The study of how mechanical forces may influence cell behavior via cytoskeleton remodeling is a relevant challenge of nowadays that may allow us to define the relationship between mechanics and biochemistry and to address the larger problem of biological complexity. An increasing amount of literature data reported that microgravity condition alters cell architecture as a consequence of cytoskel...

Space travel is a major challenge for human beings. Especially, the mechanisms through which space conditions might alter animal development have been questioned for a long time. The two major physical stress factors that are of relevance in this context are space radiation and weightlessness. While it has been extensively shown that high doses of ionizing radiation induce deleterious effects o...

BACKGROUND There is limited and inconclusive evidence that space environment, especially microgravity condition, may affect microstructure of human brain. This experiment hypothesized that there would be modifications in gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) of the brain due to microgravity. METHOD Eighteen male volunteers were recruited and fourteen volunteers underwent -6° head-down bed re...

INTRODUCTION The effect of reducing gravity on locomotion has been studied using microgravity analogues. However, there is no known literature comparing locomotion in actual microgravity (AM) to locomotion in simulated microgravity (SM). METHODS Five subjects were tested while walking at 1.34 m x s(-1) and running at 3.13 m x s(-1) on a treadmill during parabolic flight and on a microgravity ...

This study evaluated in vitro the differences in morphological behaviour between fibroblast cultured on smooth and microgrooved substrata (groove depth: 0.5 microm, width: 1, 2, 5, and 10 microm), which were subjected to simulated microgravity. The aim of the study was to clarify which of these parameters was more dominant to determine cell behaviour. Morphological characteristics were investig...

Biomimetically modified bioactive materials with bone-like surface properties are attractive candidates for use as microcarriers for 3-D bone-like tissue engineering under simulated microgravity conditions of NASAdesigned rotating wall vessel (RWV) bioreactors. The simulated microgravity environment is attainable under suitable parametric conditions of the RWV bioreactors. Ca-P containing bioac...

To support the study of the effects of microgravity on biological systems, our group is developing and testing methods that allow the cultivation of C. elegans and S. cerevisiae in microgravity. Our aim is to develop the experimental means by which investigators may conduct peer reviewed biological experiments with C. elegans or S. cerevisiae in microgravity. Our protocols are aimed at enabling...

Exposure to microgravity causes loss of lower body bone mass in some astronauts. Low-magnitude high-frequency loading can stimulate bone formation on earth. Here we hypothesized that low-magnitude high-frequency loading will also stimulate bone formation under microgravity conditions. Two groups of six bovine cancellous bone explants were cultured at microgravity on a Russian Foton-M3 spacecraf...