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A research team led by Chunhui Xu from Emory University has demonstrated that heart muscle cells can survive and grow in the microgravity environment of space. Published in Biomaterials, the findings suggest new avenues for creating more resilient heart cells that could enhance cell therapy-a technique that involves transplanting millions of heart cells to repair damaged cardiac tissue.
"T by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 22, 2025
A research team led by Chunhui Xu from Emory University has demonstrated that heart muscle cells can survive and grow in the microgravity environment of space. Published in Biomaterials, the findings suggest new avenues for creating more resilient heart cells that could enhance cell therapy-a technique that involves transplanting millions of heart cells to repair damaged cardiac tissue.
"The idea behind cell therapy is to regenerate new muscle," explained Xu, a professor of pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine. "But survival is the issue. For the heart muscle specifically, once it's damaged, it cannot regrow. After you inject new cells into the injured area, many of them are lost."
Xu's team was inspired by prior research showing that cancer cells proliferated faster in space. They initially simulated microgravity on Earth using a random positioning machine, which continuously shifted cells to prevent them from acclimating to any fixed direction. Observing higher survival rates in these conditions, they hypothesized that space's unique environment might prompt molecular changes that improve the survival of heart cells injected into patients. "In space, the cells can actually sense that new environment and make changes," Xu added.
From the laboratory to the International Space Station
The study utilized specialized heart muscle cells derived from generic human stem cells, which were transformed into three-dimensional spheroids that mimicked the structure and function of human heart tissue. These cell clusters were frozen for transport to the International Space Station (ISS) and thawed just before launch. Control samples remained on Earth for comparison. Astronauts aboard the ISS monitored the cells under microscopes and sent video footage back to the research team.After an eight-day space mission, live cell cultures returned to Earth for further analysis. Researchers compared the space-exposed cells with those kept on Earth to identify unique molecular changes triggered by microgravity. The results showed that the space-traveling cells produced higher levels of proteins linked to cell survival.
Understanding how microgravity influences the molecular processes of heart cells may pave the way for engineering cells with enhanced survivability on Earth. This insight is critical for developing effective cell therapies to repair damaged hearts. "Rather than sending cells to space," Xu noted, "We basically have to work out new ways to understand the molecular changes that push the cells to improve their survival, so we can manipulate these changes in the cells when we prepare them on Earth. Then we hope to generate a new strategy to make better cells for cell therapy."
The research, conducted in collaboration with BioServe Space Technologies and Georgia Institute of Technology, received funding from the National Science Foundation and support from the ISS National Laboratory.
Research Report:Spaceflight alters protein levels and gene expression associated with stress response and metabolic characteristics in human cardiac spheroids.
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