Researchers from Emory University studying how heart muscle cells grow and function in a space environment found that spaceflight increases the expression of genes involved in stress response and cell survival, according to a study published in the journal Biomaterials. 

The investigation was launched aboard the International Space Station (ISS) during NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 mission.

The researchers reported that cell therapy is often thought to be a more promising treatment for heart failure, but a lot of the cells injected into the injured area do not survive, making that strategy less effective than it could be.

However, research conducted by Emory University via the ISS National Lab could soon change that scenario.

By building upon their previous investigation, revealing that heart cells not only grow faster and turn into beating heart cells efficiently in space, the researchers aimed to see if they could further develop those cells and make them more flexible. 

In addition, the researchers put together bundles of heart muscle cells into microscopic three-dimensional spheroids that imitated the structure and function of the human heart and sent them to the orbiting laboratory.

Results from the study indicated that spaceflight increases the expression of genes involved in stress response and cell survival. 

The Emory team said the research, done on the ISS National Laboratory, can revolutionize cell therapy, open new pathways to repair damaged hearts in patients on Earth and lead to new ways of producing heart muscle cells on Earth that will survive transplantation into patients and respond better to stress.

The team’s investigation was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, which provides critical support for fundamental science in areas such as tissue engineering and transport phenomena. 

THE LARGER TREND

Research conducted in January on the ISS could result in early cancer detection, advance treatments for neurodegenerative conditions and improve respiratory therapies. The researchers took advantage of the unique environment of the space station to investigate potential therapies that could benefit patients on Earth.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft had almost 50 biotechnologies onboard as well as physical science and student research payloads sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory. 

In 2024, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) funded a solicitation searching for projects that utilize the ISS National Lab to advance tissue engineering and mechanobiology research. Through the solicitation, NSF provided up to $1.6 million in funding for multiple projects. 

Research examining these effects could pave the way for advances in the modeling of healthy and pathological tissues and organs, disease diagnosis and treatment, regenerative medicine and areas within bioengineering and the biomedical sciences.

When NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 launched to the ISS in September 2024, one of the ISS National Lab-sponsored investigations included a student-led project designed to investigate the consequences of radiation and the space environment on gene-editing mechanisms.

The ISS National Laboratory said that data from the project could help to develop techniques that more effectively protect astronauts and potentially clarify the genetic risks for some diseases during space travel.