MicroAge: Microgravity as a model for accelerated skeletal muscle ageing
- Paper number
IAC-19,A1,8,10,x49245
- Author
Prof. Malcolm Jackson, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Prof. Anne McArdle, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Dr. James Henstock, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Dr. Kai Hoettges, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Mr. Adam Janvier, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Dr. Samantha Jones, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Dr. Chris McArdle, United Kingdom, University of Liverpool
- Coauthor
Dr. David Zolesi, United Kingdom, Kayser Space Ltd.
- Coauthor
Mr. Gianluca Neri, United Kingdom, Kayser Space Ltd.
- Coauthor
Ms. Libby Jackson, United Kingdom, UK Space Agency
- Year
2019
- Abstract
Major demographic changes are affecting modern societies, leading to rapidly increasing numbers of older people with relatively poor health and quality of life. Physical frailty is a major factor affecting the ability of individuals to maintain independence and is primarily due to age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. The mechanisms underlying age-related loss of muscle have not been fully evaluated, but we have demonstrated that muscle from ageing animals and humans show attenuated adaptations to exercise that compromises their ability to maintain muscle mass and function. We have evaluated key mechanisms underlying adaptations of skeletal muscle to exercise and demonstrated that the exercising muscle of young or adult animals and humans generates reactive oxygen species (ROS) that stimulate activation of specific transcription factors leading to increased generation of a number of protective and cytoprotective proteins. Such responses do not occur in muscle from older animals and man in response to exercise. Astronauts and animals exposed to microgravity also lose skeletal muscle mass and their muscles are also relatively unresponsive to aerobic or resistance training in microgravity. Within a call from the UK Space Agency for an upcoming national mission on board the International Space Station (ISS), we have proposed to assess the potential analogous failure of muscle adaptations to contractile activity occurring in muscle fibres exposed to microgravity. The proposal was first selected in a shortlist of 14 proposals and then was successful as one of the three winning projects to be implemented on the ISS. The programme is sponsored by the UK Space Agency through the European Space Agency’s European Exploration Envelop Programme, directed by the Institute of Ageing & Chronic Disease of the University of Liverpool and implemented in cooperation with the European Space Agency for the mission integration and operations. The payload developer is Kayser Space Ltd., an aerospace company located in the Harwell Campus (Didcot, Oxfordshire) holding extensive experience with life science payloads onboard the ISS. The paper will present the background, the research goals and perspective, as well as the implementation of the scientific protocol in a payload to be designed, manufactured and certified for a mission compatible with human spaceflight on board the International Space Station.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-19,A1,8,10,x49245.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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