Mechano-biological Coupling of Cellular Responses to Microgravity

Abstract

Cellular response to microgravity is a basic issue in space biological sciences as well as space physiology and medicine. It is crucial to elucidate the mechanobiological coupling mechanisms of various biological organisms, since, from the principle of adaptability, all species evolved on the earth must possess the structure and function that adapts their living environment. As a basic element of an organism, a cell usually undergoes mechanical and chemical remodeling to sense, transmit, transduce, and respond to the alteration of gravitational signals. In the past decades, new computational platforms and experimental methods/techniques/devices are developed to mimic the biological effects of microgravity environment from the viewpoint of biomechanical approaches. Mechanobiology of plant gravisensing in the responses of statolith movements along the gravity vector and the relevant signal transduction and molecular regulatory mechanisms are investigated at gene, transcription, and protein levels. Mechanotransduction of bone or immune cell responses and stem cell development and tissue histogenesis are elucidated under microgravity. In this review, several important issues are briefly discussed. Future issues on gravisensing and mechanotransducing mechanisms are also proposed for ground-based studies as well as space missions.

Microgravity-Induced Alterations of Inflammation-Related Mechanotransduction in Endothelial Cells on Board SJ-10 Satellite

“…However, ICAM-1 mRNA is up-regulated after 30 min clinorotation and the clustering of ICAM-1s on cell membrane is observed when ECs are activated by TNF-α and cultured in RWV ( Zhang et al, 2010 ). Mechanistically, cellular responses to microgravity are a typical mechano-biological process and highly associated with cytoskeletal remodeling ( van Loon, 2009 ; Long et al, 2015 ). The reorganization of cytoskeletons including microtubules and actin filaments (F-actin) are also known to be regulated by the effect of simulated microgravity ( Buravkova et al, 2018 ) as well as by gravity vector orientation ( Zhang et al, 2017 ; Zhou L.W.…”

Microgravity‐induced hepatogenic differentiation of rBMSCs on board the SJ‐10 satellite

“…In addition to those biochemical factors, the mechanical factors originating from space microgravity could play a role in directing rBMSCs into HLCs via mechanosensation, which is induced by cell adhesion onto the substrate and by force transmission through cytoskeletons (20,31,44). In this work, a stem cell phenotype-related adhesive molecule, CD34, maintained the similar expression, but other conventional adhesive molecules of CD44, ICAM-1, and VCAM-1 yieldedreduced expressions in space (Fig.…”

Effects of large gradient high magnetic field (LG‐HMF) on the long‐term culture of aquatic organisms: Planarians example

“…The drawbacks of the RPM (i.e., fluid shear stress and fluid strain force) limit its applications for culturing cells and aquatic organisms [Arfat et al, ]. Compared to the RPM, the superconducting magnet can better simulate the mechanical effects of special gravity environments, in which the gravity of each molecule in diamagnetic objects (i.e., biological macromolecules, cells, tissues, and animal models) may be counteracted or enhanced when placed in the position of the corresponding gradient magnetic field [Long et al, ; Wang et al, ]. However, some contradictions still remain regarding the application of superconducting magnets to simulate different gravity environments, as high magnetic fields have been reported to significantly affect cell life, such as in cell proliferation and differentiation [Kawakami et al, ; Zablotskii et al, ].…”