Microgravity

Influence of Microgravity on Spontaneous Calcium Activity of Primary Hippocampal Neurons Grown in Microfluidic Chips

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

npj Microgravity

February 27, 2024

Filed under CNES, ISS, Microfluidic Chip, Microgravity, neurons, npj Microgravity, space station

Influence of Microgravity on Spontaneous Calcium Activity of Primary Hippocampal Neurons Grown in Microfluidic Chips — The height of the chambers is 50 μm, thus confining the cells in a monolayer. Each inlet is a 50 μL reservoir and the chambers have the following dimensions: 5 mm (length) × 1 mm (width) × 50 μm (height). An immunostaining of a 10-days-old hippocampal neuronal network is also shown. The following dye and primary antibodies were used: DAPI (nucleus) in blue, MAP2 (Microtubule-associated protein 2, showing neurons) in green and GFAP (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein, showing astrocytes) in red. Scale bar is 150 μm. — npj Microgravity

The influence of variations of gravity, either hypergravity or microgravity, on the brain of astronauts is a major concern for long journeys in space, to the Moon or to Mars, or simply long-duration missions on the ISS (International Space Station).

Monitoring brain activity, before and after ISS missions already demonstrated important and long term effects on the brains of astronauts. In this study, we focus on the influence of gravity variations at the cellular level on primary hippocampal neurons.

A dedicated setup has been designed and built to perform live calcium imaging during parabolic flights. During a CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) parabolic flight campaign, we were able to observe and monitor the calcium activity of 2D networks of neurons inside microfluidic devices during gravity changes over different parabolas.

Our preliminary results clearly indicate a modification of the calcium activity associated to variations of gravity.

npj Microgravity ( IF 5.1 ) Pub Date: 2024-02-06 , DOI:10.1038/s41526-024-00355-x
Pierre-Ewen Lecoq, Chloé Dupuis, Xavier Mousset, Xavier Benoit-Gonnin, Jean-Michel Peyrin, Jean-Luc Aider
Influence of microgravity on spontaneous calcium activity of primary hippocampal neurons grown in microfluidic chips, npj Microgravity (open access)

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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