Gravity-defying drug: Scientists find secret to prevent muscle loss in space

Space is not a welcoming environment for humans. Prolonged stay is known to have detrimental effects on the human body, including neurological and muscular impairments.

Researchers from Stanford University sent tiny chips equipped with human muscle cells to the International Space Station (ISS).

The researchers intended to learn more about what happens to our muscles in space, where gravity is almost non-existent.

“Space is a really unique environment that accelerates qualities associated with aging and also impairs many healthy processes,” said Ngan Huang, an associate professor at Stanford University.

Various metabolic changes seen

Huang and her team at the university developed these muscle chips to mimic the behavior of real human muscle. By sending them into orbit, they hope to gain insights into muscle atrophy, a condition that affects both astronauts and the elderly.

“Astronauts come back with muscle atrophy, or a reduction of muscle function, because the muscle isn’t being actively used in the absence of gravity,” Huang added.

Once onboard ISS, the muscle cells grew for seven days under astronaut supervision. Afterward, the muscle chips were returned to Earth.

The muscle cells grown in microgravity exhibited signs of impairment, including changes in their genetic makeup and energy production. It was as if the muscles were prematurely aging.

Notably, the muscles displayed genetic markers similar to age-related muscle loss called sarcopenia. This condition impacts people ages 60 and above.

Apart from this, the team found that the muscle cells experienced other metabolic changes as well.

Specifically, muscle fibers failed to develop normally in space, and the composition of proteins in these muscles differed from those grown on Earth.

Furthermore, genes essential for energy production were damaged, while those linked to fat buildup were activated. These findings indicate that microgravity disrupts muscle repair and growth.

“We think our research on muscle chips in microgravity may have broader implications on sarcopenia. Sarcopenia usually takes decades to develop on Earth, and we think that microgravity may have some ability to accelerate the disease process in orders of days,” said Huang.

Potential drug testing

The astronauts also tested drugs on the muscle chips to see whether they may prevent microgravity-induced sarcopenia or improve muscle regeneration.

Interestingly, the treatment partially reversed some of the harmful impacts of microgravity on the muscles. For instance, the drugs stopped the muscle cells from turning into fat. Gene activity analysis revealed that drug-treated muscles in space were more similar to those grown on Earth than untreated space muscles.

However, the team did not specify which medicine was utilized in the space experiment.

As space travel becomes more accessible, it is critical to understand how microgravity affects the human body. But sending experiments to ISS involves high costs and complexities.

To overcome these challenges, the Stanford team is developing ground-based equipment to simulate the effects of space.

In 2025, the muscle chips are scheduled for another trip to ISS to continue the search for drugs to combat microgravity-induced muscle degeneration.

“This concept of engineered tissue chip platform in microgravity is a potentially transformative tool that could allow us to study a variety of diseases and do drug screening without animal or human subjects,” said Huang in the press release.

The findings have been published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.