Pathophysiology and Current management of Space Flight Osteopenia: A review of Literature
- Paper number
IAC-16,A1,IP,4,x33194
- Coauthor
Mr. Miguel Ángel Mejía Sánchez, UNAM, Mexico
- Year
2016
- Abstract
There is evidence that astronauts go through many significant physiological changes during space flight. However, there isn’t enough documentation around multiple diseases that result from these physiological changes, such as “Space Flight Osteopenia” which is considered to be a variant of osteoporosis. Bone remodeling is carried by osteoclasts (cells that produce bone resorption) an osteoblasts (cells that rebuild bone matrix). In the case of “common” osteoporosis found in women, the lack of estrogen (hormone that induces osteoclast apoptosis) post menopause results in the increasing activity of osteoclasts making osteoblasts unable to catch up with the bone resorption process and thus bones are drastically debilitated. But in spaceflight osteopenia the pathogenesis is different. Bone remodels in response to a stimulus, areas with higher stress will have major bone density and areas with minor stimulus will have less density. Since gravity is minor in spaceflight than on earth, the entire skeleton of astronauts is under minor stress leading to loss of bone density. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the pathophysiological process of space flight osteopenia, its current management and posible solutions for this problem.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)