NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,133 24 January 2025 (Space Life Science Research Results)

The abstract in PubMed or at the publisher’s site is linked when available and will open in a new window.

Papers deriving from NASA support:

1. Richards JT, Mortenson TE, Spern CJ, Mousseau TA, Gooden JL, Spencer LE, Khodadad CL, Fischer JA, Meyers AD, Papenfuhs CK, Buell JG, Levine HG, Dimapilis DI, Zhang Y.Simulated deep space exposure on seeds utilizing the MISSE flight facility.npj Microgravity. 2025 Jan 17;11:3.Note: ISS results. This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 5.1
   
   Funding: “This project was funded by both the Flight Opportunity Program and the NASA Biological and Physical Sciences Division as a pathfinder technology demonstration for future Space Biology investigations using the MISSE platform. TAM’s participation was in part supported by a SURA LASSO/NASA visiting scientist award and funding from the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust. We also thank the KSC’s EDL for conducting the thermal test, and the Cryogenics Test Laboratory (CTL), especially James E. Fesmire and Adam M. Swanger, for recommendations on insulation material selections. We thank especially Matthew W. Romeyn (KSC) for his recommendation on seed selection, Trent M. Smith (KSC) for his technical advice, and Bill Wells (the Bionetics Corporation) and Mark Shumbera (Aegis Aerospace Inc.) for their support. We give special thanks to astronauts (JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, and NASA astronauts Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei), the Aegis team, and the whole ISS team for supporting and operating the MISSE-14 payload.”
2. Clement K, Nemec-Bakk AS, Jun SR, Sridharan V, Patel CM, Williams DK, Newhauser WD, Willey JS, Williams J, Boerma M, Chancellor JC, Koturbash I.Long-term effects of combined exposures to simulated microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation on the mouse lung: Sex-specific epigenetic reprogramming.Radiat Environ Biophys. 2025 Jan 22.PI: J.C. ChancellorNote: : Hindlimb unloading was used to simulate exposure to microgravity.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 1.5
   
   Funding: “This work was supported by NASA, grant # 80JSC019N001-HHCBPSR; Clinical and Translational Science Awards UL1TR000039 and KL2TR000063; NIGMS, grant P20 GM109005, and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute.”
3. Josan PK, Dutta P, Abbott R, Martin AV, Dunbar BJ, Wong RKW, Selva D, Diaz-Artiles A.Virtual assistant for spacecraft anomaly resolution: Effects on human performance metrics.J Aerosp Inform Syst. 2025 Jan 3. Online ahead of print.PI: D. SelvaNote: From the abstract: “Virtual assistants (VAs) are known to improve performance, reduce mental workload (MWL), and improve situational awareness (SA) in complex cognitive tasks. However, there is a lack of studies focusing on anomaly resolution tasks in time- and safety-critical environments such as long-duration exploration missions. This paper aims to investigate the effects of using a VA, namely Daphne-AT, on crew performance, SA, and MWL in the context of spacecraft anomaly treatment.”
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 1.3
   
   Funding: “This work was funded by the NASA Human Research Program grant number 80NSSC19K0656, as part of Human Capabilities Assessment for Autonomous Missions Virtual NASA Specialized Center of Research effort. The authors would like to acknowledge Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) management team for their continuous support in providing access to the Habitat Simulation System, related technical support, and delivery of associated anomaly resolution procedures.”
4. Casaletto JA, Scott RT, Myrick M, Mackintosh G, Chok H, Saravia-Butler A, Hoarfrost A, Galazka JM, Sanders LM, Costes SV.Analyzing the relationship between gene expression and phenotype in space-flown mice using a causal inference machine learning ensemble.Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 18;15(1):2363.Note: From the abstract: “In this work, we use a machine learning ensemble of causal inference methods called the Causal Research and Inference Search Platform (CRISP) which was developed to predict causal features of a binary response variable from high-dimensional input. We used CRISP to identify genes robustly correlated with a lipid density phenotype using transcriptomic and histological data from the NASA Open Science Data Repository (OSDR).” This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: Not available for this journal
   
   Funding: “This research was supported by the NASA Human Research Program (HRP), Science Mission Directorate, and Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division. We thank the HRP Radiation Element Translational Radiation Research and Countermeasures team and the GeneLab team for collaboration. Resources supporting this work were provided by the NASA High-End Computing (HEC) Program through the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) at Goddard Space Flight Center. We also wish to thank Charlotte Nelson from Mate Bioservices, Inc. for providing us the results from the SPOKE tool.”
5. Shepanek MA.Behavioral health for long-duration space missions.In: Krittanawong C, ed. Precision Medicine for Long and Safe Permanence of Humans in Space: Academic Press. 2025. p. 57-9.Funding: M.A. Shepanek is affiliated with NASA Headquarters.
6. Possnig C, Marume K, Babu G, Janssen S, Hearon CM, Jr., Dias KA, Sarma S, Lawley JS, Levine BD.Regional changes in cerebral blood flow between the upright and supine posture and over 3 days of bedrest.Exp Physiol. 2025 Jan 22. Online ahead of print.PIs: J.S. Lawley/B.D. Levine/NSBRINote: This article may be obtained online without charge.
   
   Journal Impact Factor: 2.6
   
   Funding: “This work was supported by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) Grant CA 00005 through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration cooperative agreement NCC 9-58-49.”
7. Siegel B, Spry JA, Seasly E, Benardini JN.Status update of NASAs assessment of the biological contamination threat of crewed Mars surface missions.Life Sci Space Res. 2025 Jan 22. Online ahead of print.Journal Impact Factor: 2.9
   
   Funding: B. Siegel, E. Seasly, and J.N. Benardini are affiliated with NASA Headquarters.

Other papers of interest:

1. Forghani P, Liu W, Wang Z, Ling Z, Takaesu F, Yang E, Tharp GK, Nielsen S, Doraisingam S, Countryman S, Davis ME, Wu R, Jia S, Xu C.Spaceflight alters protein levels and gene expression associated with stress response and metabolic characteristics in human cardiac spheroids.Biomaterials. 2025 June;317:123080.Note: ISS results.
2. Bosco G, Landolfi A, Giacon TA, Vezzoli A, Paolocci N, Mrakic-Sposta S.Short-term suborbital spaceflight curtails astronauts’ dopamine levels increasing cortisol/BDNF and prompting pro-oxidative/inflammatory milieu.Mil Med Res. 2025 Jan 20;12(1):2.Note: This article is a letter to the editor and may be obtained online without charge.
3. Galdamez LA, Mader TH, Ong J, Kadipasaoglu CM, Lee AG.A multifactorial, evidence-based analysis of pathophysiology in Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS).Eye (Lond). 2025 Jan 18. Review. Online ahead of print.
4. Chen S-G, Chen X-P, Wu B.Advancing space medicine: A global perspective on in-orbit research and future directions.Military Med Res. 2025 Jan 3;12:1.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
5. Horn KJ, Hoffman JA.Insulin delivery pumps for human spaceflight: Steps toward an accessible space future.Wilderness Environ Med. 2025 Jan 17;10806032241304439. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “Commercially available insulin pumps for treatment of diabetes mellitus are currently not qualified to operate in the space environment. This work rigorously tested the fluid delivery performance of a Tandem t:slim X2 insulin pump in both micro- and hypergravity during a parabolic microgravity research flight.” This article may be obtained online without charge.
6. Li S, Liu X, Chen L, Liu H, Fu Y, Hu D.Cure or curse? Simulation indicates that microbes proliferate under disinfection measures in the space station.Acta Astronaut. 2025 Jan 19. Online ahead of print.
7. Opsomer L, Vandergooten S, Tagliabue M, Thonnard JL, Lefèvre P, McIntyre J.A singular theory of sensorimotor coordination: On targeted motions in space.J Neurosci. 2025 Jan 17.
8. Chen X, Li Z, Zheng C, Wu J, Hai Y.Expression of MMP1, MMP3, and TIMP1 in intervertebral discs under simulated overload and microgravity conditions.J Orthop Surg Res. 2025 Jan 20;20:71.Note: Hindlimb unloading was used in this study to simulate microgravity. This article may be obtained online without charge.
9. Lansweers I, van Rijthoven S, van Loon J.The role of the LINC [linker of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton] complex in ageing and microgravity.Mech Ageing Dev. 2025 Apr;112028. Review.
10. Pan J, Li J, Li J, Ling S, Du R, Xing W, Li Y, Sun W, Li Y, Fan Y, Yuan X, Sun H, Yu M, Wang X, Li Y, Zhong G.miR-199a-3p mitigates simulated microgravity-induced cardiac remodeling by targeting MEF2C.Faseb j. 2025 Jan 31;39(2):e70331.Note: Hindlimb unloading and bedrest study.
11. Prokopovich LS, Ilyin VK, Drobyshev AY.[Prevention of periodontal inflammation in microgravity modeling].Stomatologiia (Mosk). 2024;103(6-2):23-8. Russian.Note: Dry immersion experiment.
12. Rah B, Shafarin J, Qaisar R, Karim A, Hamad M, Muhammad JS.Mouse hindlimb unloading, as a model of simulated microgravity, leads to dysregulated iron homeostasis in liver and skeletal muscle cells.Life Sci Space Res. 2025 Jan 18. Online ahead of print.
13. Thierry S, Querrec R, Bernard CI, Kubicki S, Bevacqua E.Technical validation of a spatial tracking configuration for augmented and co-localized medical assistance under gravity variations in parabolic flights.Wilderness Environ Med. 2025 Jan 17;10806032241308457. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “During parabolic flight campaigns, we conducted an abdominal pain simulation scenario and sought to compare procedural assistances. Participants performed a basic medical examination using either classic cognitive aids (such as a paper checklist) or an augmented-reality device projecting visual co-localized (situated or embedded) assistance.”
14. Li Q, Wang Y, Jiang S, Xie S, Wu F, Zeng X, Li S, Dai Z, Yan Q, Wang J, Hou X, Yang F, Pi Y, Zhang M, Diao Y, Wei L.Structural characterization and anti-weightless bone loss activity of an anionic polysaccharide from Dictyophora indusiata.Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jan 17;140006. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “This study explores the extraction and purification of polysaccharides from Dictyophora indusiata (D. indusiata) with its antioxidant and anti-weightlessness bone loss properties.”
15. Zeng K, Yuan PR, Xuan JF, Zhao LX, Li XN, Yao J, Zhao D.Characteristics of transcriptome and chromatin accessibility in the peripheral blood after acute hypoxia exposure.BMC Biol. 2025 Jan 21;23:19.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
16. Cikač A, Pišot S.Interpersonal relationships as coping mechanisms during bedrest: A thematic synthesis literature review.Front Psychol. 2025 Jan 7;15:1501113.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
17. Sun C, Ding L, Zhang Q, Nie J, Zhao Y, Xu D, Liu Z, Wu B.Research on the effects of 15-day of head-down tilt bedrest on arterial hemodynamics and blood supply using doppler ultrasound technology.Life Sci Space Res. 2025 Jan 23. Online ahead of print.
18. Li C, Pan Y, Wang Y, Li X, Tie Y, Li S, Wang R, Zhao X, Fan J, Yan X, Wang Y, Sun X.Single-cell RNA sequencing of the carotid artery and femoral artery of rats exposed to hindlimb unloading.Cell Mol Life Sci. 2025 Jan 21;82:50.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
19. Zhang J, Liu J, Jia W, Li J, Sun C, Nie J, Liu T, Wang H, Ma X, Ding L.Effects of acute hypoxic exposure in extraterrestrial habitats on work performance and biomechanical parameters of manual material handling.Acta Astronaut. 2025 Apr;229:345-56.Note: From the abstract: From the abstract: “NASA has proposed long-duration lunar and Mars habitats operate at 8.0 psia/32% O₂ atmosphere (the equivalent air altitude [EAA] = 1213 m) nominally with an optional depress to 7.6 psia/32% O₂ (EAA = 2100 m). To investigate the design extension of atmosphere for emergency scenarios and the biomechanical responses of astronauts performing physical tasks in hypobaric hypoxia, this study analyzed the work performance, upper limb muscles activation and kinematics of ten male participants during repetitive manual material handling (MMH) of 25 kg boxes to fatigue at normobaric normoxia (NN, FiO2 = 20.9%) and acute hypobaric moderate (MH, FiO2 = 13.6%) and severe (SH, FiO2 = 11.8%) hypoxic exposure.”

astrobiology, space biology, space medicine, microgravity,