Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                     
March 31, 1994
(Phone:  202/358-1979)

Jane Hutchison
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.
(Phone:  415/604-4968)


RELEASE:  94-55

NASA AND NIH READY FOR FIRST JOINT SCIENCE FLIGHT

   The first cooperative space flight research initiative between 
NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will help 
scientists better understand the effects of microgravity on growth 
of human bone and muscle cells during space flight and also, may 
increase understanding of changes in muscle and bone on Earth 
after severe injury, certain degenerative diseases or prolonged 
bedrest.  This space research will be conducted on April's Space 
Shuttle mission.

   The cell biology experiments will use a special cell culture 
system designed and developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of 
Research, Washington, D.C.  The system, known as Space Tissue Loss 
(STL), will examine the effects of microgravity on muscle and bone 
cells.  

   In weightlessness, virtually every human physiological system 
undergoes some form of adaptation.  On this flight, scientists 
will examine how exposure to microgravity changes the size, shape, 
components and maturation of bone and muscle cells by analyzing 
the cells after return to Earth.  They will study bone cells from 
rats and chicks and muscle cells from rats.

   "We may gain important insights into the basic biology of how 
muscle and bone cells respond to changes in gravitational force," 
said Joan Vernikos, Director of NASA's Life and Biomedical 
Sciences and Applications Division, Washington, D.C.  "We also may 
be better able to answer the more immediate question for NASA, how 
to reduce muscle and bone loss during space flight."

   Previous flights of muscle and bone cells using this cell 
culture system suggested that bone and muscle cells may mature 
differently in space than on Earth.  Significant changes at the 
cellular level during space flight could affect the strength of 
bone and muscle.
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   Preliminary data suggest that muscle cells grown in space lose 
their ability to convert from muscle cells to muscle fibers 
following flight.  In addition, the matrix produced by bone cells 
in flight may not mineralize the same way as bone cells on Earth.  
Bone matrix is the organic structure onto which minerals are 
deposited.

   Dr. Ruth Globus of the Veterans Administration Medical Center 
and the University of California, both in San Francisco, will 
study the response of rat bone cells during the flight.  She will 
examine the ability of bone cells to mature and produce materials 
required for mineralization of the skeleton.  Her co-investigator 
is Dr. Stephen Doty of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New 
York City.

   Dr. David Kulesh of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 
(AFIP), Washington, D.C., will study muscle cell cultures.  His 
co-investigators are Dr. George Kearney, Maj. Loraine Anderson and 
Dr. William Mehm, all of AFIP.  They will examine samples of 
space-flown muscle cells to learn if they mature and form muscle 
fibers after return to Earth.  In addition, they hope to find out 
how information in the DNA is expressed in the space-flown cells.

   Dr. William Landis and co-investigator Dr. Louis Gerstenfeld 
will study the response of chick bone cells to space flight.  Both 
are from the Laboratory for the Study of Skeletal Disorders at the 
Children's Hospital, Boston, and the Department of Orthopedic 
Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  Analysis of nutrient solution 
collected at two points during flight will allow the scientists to 
examine rates of cell growth during exposure to space flight. 

   They also will compare protein production by bone cells exposed 
to space flight with those on Earth.  These proteins and the way 
they weave the bone matrix are important in production of new 
bone.  In addition, they will investigate the mineral incorporated 
into the matrix during the flight using analytical techniques such 
as electron microscopy. 

   NASA has signed agreements with eight of NIH's institutes to 
expand biomedical cooperation between the two agencies.  The cell 
experiments on this flight are the result of an agreement between 
NASA and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal 
and Skin Diseases (NIAMS).  As part of the NIAMS agreement, NASA 
agreed to fly a series of experiments on three Space Shuttle 
flights that will focus on the changes in bone and muscle cells 
during space flight.

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