Cosmic Kidney Disease: The Effects of Spaceflight and Galactic Cosmic Radiation on Renal Structure and Function

Stephen Walsh, Keith Siew, Fatemeh Afsari, Maneera Al-Jaber, Noah Allen, Mohammed Al-Maadheed, Selin Altinok, Shehbeel Arif, Nourdine Bah, Sergio E Baranzini, Peter Barker, Afshin Beheshti, Elizabeth Blaber, Samuel Border, Valery Boyko, Jessica Broni-Tabi, Keith A. Burling, Robert Campbell, Margareth Cheng-Campbell, Chris CheshireLorianna Colon, Sylvain V. Costes, Laura Cubitt, Viola D'Ambrosio, Lovorka Degoricija, Amelia Eisch, Hossein Fazelinia, Nichola Figg, Rebecca Finch, Jonathan Foox, Alison French, Jonathan Galazka, Samrawit Gebre, Peter Gordon, Alessandra Grillo, Nadia Houerbi, Hossein Valipour Kahrood, Fathi Karouia, Frederico Kiffer, JangKeun Kim, Aleksandra Klosinska, Angela Kubik, Han Chung Lee, Yinghui Li, Zhongwang Li, Nicholas Lucarelli, Steven Lynham, Anthony Marullo, Christopher Mason, Irina Matei, Cem Meydan, Sayat Mimar, Vidya Mohamed-Ali, Masafumi Muratani, Ahmed Naglah, Charlotte Nelson, Kevin A. Nestler, Jerome Nicod, Kevin O'Shaughnessy, Lorraine Christine De Oliveira, Leah Oswalt, Eliah Overbey, Vaksha Patel, Laura Ioana Patras, San-huei Polo, María Rodríguez-Lopez, Samuel Rodriques, Candice Roufosse, Omid Sadeghi-Alavijeh, Rebekah Sanchez-Hodge, Lauren M. Sanders, Anindya Sankar, Pinaki Sarder, Jonathan Schisler, Ralf B. Schittenhelm, Annalise Schweickart, Ryan Scott, Dai Shiba, Terry Lim, Willian Silveira, Hubert Slawinski, Scott Smith, Daniel Snell, Julio Sosa, Joel Steele, Marshall Tabetah, Erwin Tanuwidjaya, Akira Uruno, Michael Vaughan, Simon Walker-Samuel, Elizabeth Wan, Masayuki Yamamoto, Xiaoping Yang, Yasmin Yasmin, Sanghee Yun, Hailey Zhang, Zhongquan Dai, Jasminka Zimmermann, Sara Zwart, Eduardo A.C. Almeida, Chutong Zhong

Research output: Other contributionResearch

Abstract

Missions into Deep Space are planned this decade. Yet the health consequences of exposure to microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) over years-long missions on indispensable visceral organs such as the kidney are largely unexplored.

We performed biomolecular (epigenomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, epiproteomic, metabolomic, metagenomic), clinical chemistry (electrolytes, endocrinology, biochemistry) and morphometry (histology, 3D imaging, miRNA-ISH, tissue weights) analyses using samples and datasets available from 11 spaceflight-exposed mouse and 5 human, 1 simulated microgravity rat and 4 simulated GCR-exposed mouse missions.

We found that spaceflight induces: 1) renal transporter dephosphorylation which may indicate astronauts’ increased risk of nephrolithiasis is in part a primary renal phenomenon rather than solely a secondary consequence of bone loss; 2) remodelling of the nephron that results in expansion of distal convoluted tubule size but loss of overall tubule density; 3) renal damage and dysfunction when exposed to a Mars roundtrip dose-equivalent of simulated GCR.
Original languageEnglish
Typepreprint
PublisherResearch Square
Number of pages22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Oct 2023

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