An Update to Space Biomedical Research: Tissue Engineering in Microgravity Bioreactors

Overview

Journal Bioimpacts

Specialty Biomedical Engineering

Date 2013 May 17

PMID 23678438

Citations 24

Authors

Abolfazl Barzegari

Amir Ata Saei

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: The severe need for constructing replacement tissues in organ transplanta-tion has necessitated the development of tissue engineering approaches and bioreactors that can bring these approaches to reality. The inherent limitations of conventional bioreactors in generating realistic tissue constructs led to the devise of the microgravity tissue engineering that uses Rotating Wall Vessel (RWV) bioreactors initially developed by NASA.

Methods: In this review article, we intend to highlight some major advances and accomplishments in the rapidly-growing field of tissue engineering that could not be achieved without using microgravity.

Results: Research is now focused on assembly of 3 dimensional (3D) tissue fragments from various cell types in human body such as chon-drocytes, osteoblasts, embryonic and mesenchymal stem cells, hepatocytes and pancreas islet cells. Hepatocytes cultured under microgravity are now being used in extracorporeal bioartificial liver devices. Tissue constructs can be used not only in organ replacement therapy, but also in pharmaco-toxicology and food safety assessment. 3D models of vari-ous cancers may be used in studying cancer development and biology or in high-throughput screening of anticancer drug candidates. Finally, 3D heterogeneous assemblies from cancer/immune cells provide models for immunotherapy of cancer.

Conclusion: Tissue engineering in (simulated) microgravity has been one of the stunning impacts of space research on biomedical sciences and their applications on earth.

Citing Articles

Spaceflight alters protein levels and gene expression associated with stress response and metabolic characteristics in human cardiac spheroids.

Forghani P, Liu W, Wang Z, Ling Z, Takaesu F, Yang E Biomaterials. 2025; 317:123080.

PMID: 39809079 PMC: 11788069. DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.123080.

Pharmacological Innovations in Space: Challenges and Future Perspectives.

Aksoyalp Z, Temel A, Karpuz M Pharm Res. 2024; 41(11):2095-2120.

PMID: 39532779 DOI: 10.1007/s11095-024-03788-x.

Exploring New Horizons: Advancements in Cartilage Tissue Engineering Under Space Microgravity.

Jeyaraman M, Ramasubramanian S, Yadav S, Jeyaraman N Cureus. 2024; 16(8):e66224.

PMID: 39238750 PMC: 11374578. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.66224.

Simulated microgravity improves maturation of cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Forghani P, Rashid A, Armand L, Wolfson D, Liu R, Cho H Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):2243.

PMID: 38278855 PMC: 10817987. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-52453-1.

Space microgravity increases expression of genes associated with proliferation and differentiation in human cardiac spheres.

Hwang H, Rampoldi A, Forghani P, Li D, Fite J, Boland G NPJ Microgravity. 2023; 9(1):88.

PMID: 38071377 PMC: 10710480. DOI: 10.1038/s41526-023-00336-6.

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