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posted by chromas on Friday January 25 2019, @02:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-sickness-what-came-from-outer-space dept.

Prolonged Spaceflight Could Weaken Astronauts' Immune Systems:

NASA hopes to send humans to Mars by 2030 on a round-trip mission that could take up to three years -- far longer than any human has ever traveled in space. Such long-term spaceflights could adversely affect certain cells in the immune systems of astronauts, according to a new study led by University of Arizona [(UA)] researchers.

"What NASA and other space agencies are concerned about is whether or not the immune system is going to be compromised during very prolonged spaceflight missions," said Richard Simpson, senior author and associate professor of nutritional sciences at the UA. "What clinical risks are there to the astronauts during these missions when they're exposed to things like microgravity, radiation and isolation stress? Could it be catastrophic to the level that the astronaut wouldn't be able to complete the mission?"

Simpson and his team of researchers at the UA, the University of Houston, Louisiana State University and NASA-Johnson Space Center, studied the effects of spaceflights of six months or more on natural killer cells, or NK cells, a type of white blood cell that kills cancerous cells in the body and prevents old viruses from reactivating.

"Cancer is a big risk to astronauts during very prolonged spaceflight missions because of the exposure to radiation," Simpson said. "[NK-cells] are also very important to kill off virally infected cells. When you're in the space station, it's a very sterile environment -- you're not likely to pick up the flu or a rhinovirus or some community-type infection -- but the infections that are a problem are the viruses that are already in your body. These are mostly viruses that cause things like shingles, mononucleosis or cold sores; they stay in your body for the rest of your life, and they do reactivate when you're stressed."

Scientists compared blood samples of eight crewmembers who completed missions to the International Space Station with healthy individuals who remained on Earth. Blood samples were taken before launch, at several points during the mission and after the astronauts' return to Earth.

The results showed that NK-cell function is impaired in astronauts as compared with pre-flight levels and ground-based controls. At flight day 90, NK-cell cytotoxic activity against leukemia cells in vitro was reduced by approximately 50 percent in International Space Station crew members.

[...] Whether the drop in NK-cell function makes astronauts more susceptible to cancer and viral reactivation remains to be seen, Simpson said. He hopes to learn more from future studies.

So not only do astronauts face risks like muscle and bone loss, they now face the prospect of reactivation of old illnesses. Will Mars' gravity (38% that of Earth's) be enough to ward off this decline?


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday January 25 2019, @06:17PM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday January 25 2019, @06:17PM (#791918) Homepage Journal

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