Artificial Gravity Lowers Spaceflight’s Health Toll on Fruit Flies – Intelligent Living

Astronauts bodies suffer greatly in microgravity, which is unfortunate given humanitys aspirations to colonize space. However, artificial gravity can help alleviate some health issues, as demonstrated by aNASAexperiment using fruit flies aboard the International Space Station.

Fruit flies were the earliest living organisms ever put into orbit when they were launched aboard a V2 rocket on February 20, 1947. Fruit flies are model organisms to study the health effects of space flights, including changes in gravity, radiation, and other changes. We know that fruit flies share 75% of human disease-causing genes, and there is also a significant overlap between cellular and molecular processes between humans and flies. So scientists can investigate how a space environment might impact human health by learning more about fruit flies.

Dr. Siddhita Mhatre, a senior scientist at NASAs Ames Research Center, California, said: It is imperative that we understand the impacts of altered gravity on the neurological function. And flies in space, alongside the astronauts, will help to further our efforts in keeping astronauts healthy.

Humans and all life on Earth have evolved to survive under the conditions our planet offers, with gravity playing a significant role. For example, our muscles and bones retain minimal strength by constantly defying gravity, and our circulatory, digestive, and central neurological systems depend on naturally flowing fluids moving downward.

Therefore, humans biology is negatively impacted when they are removed from that environment. Many side effects of space travel have been documented, including puffy faces, blurred eyesight, heart weakness, muscle mass, and bone loss. Because of this, astronauts have to exercise intensely for hours every day throughout their time in outer space, and their health still declines even when they return to Earth.

With astronauts slated to return to the Moon by 2024 and prospects of landing on Mars in the future, finding solutions to reduce the effects of microgravity is becoming increasingly crucial. One of the critical questions is whether artificial gravity can lessen the impacts, which NASA has recently looked into using fruit flies.

The flies were sent to the International Space Station (ISS), where they were tested in a device that could keep flies under varying gravity levels. One group of fruit flies experienced low-Earth orbital microgravity, while the other was exposed to artificial gravity created by spinning an enclosure in a centrifuge. A third group remained on Earth, serving as a control.

After spending three weeks in space, the fruit flies were brought back to Earth and thoroughly researched, including their behavior, cellular alterations in their brains, gene expression, and how they aged after arriving.

Both colonies of space-traveling flies displayed metabolic alterations, oxidative stress in their cells, and detrimental neurological effects. On the other hand, those maintained under artificial gravity appeared to be protected against several neurological alterations, such as neuron loss, changes in the number of glial cells, cell death, and oxidative damage.

The microgravity flies also experienced difficulty readjusting to gravity after landing on Earth. As a result, they aged more quickly than the other groups and fared worse on a climbing test. The researchers point out that although flies and humans are highly different species, this experiment implies that using artificial gravity can aid astronauts with potential health issues brought on by microgravity. This could be combined with specialized centrifuges or spacesuits that simulate gravity to make exercise in space more similar to exercising on Earth.

Dr. Janani Iyer, a study author, explained:

Microgravity poses risks to the central nervous system, suggesting that countermeasures may be needed for long-duration space travel. As we venture back to the Moon and on to Mars, reducing the harmful effects of microgravity will be key to keeping future explorers safe. This study is a step in the right direction to explore the protective effects of artificial gravity in space and to understand the adaptation to Earth conditions after returning from space.

The studyArtificial gravity partially protects space-induced neurological deficits in Drosophila melanogasterwas published inCell Reportson September 6, 2022.

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Artificial Gravity Lowers Spaceflight's Health Toll on Fruit Flies - Intelligent Living