The aim of this review is to compile, summarize and discuss the effects of microgravity on embryos, cell structure and function that have been demonstrated from data obtained during experiments performed in space or in altered gravity induced by clinostats. In cells and tissues cellular structure and genetic expression may be changed in microgravity and this has a variety of effects on embryoge...

The kinetics of gravitaxis and gravikinesis in Paramecium caudatum were investigated by employing (1) step transitions from normal gravity (1 g) to weightlessness (microgravity) and (2) turns of the experimental chambers from the horizontal to the vertical position at 1 g. The transition to microgravity left existing cell orientations unchanged. Relaxation of negative gravitaxis under micrograv...

BACKGROUND Growing cells in simulated weightlessness condition might be a highly promising new technique to maintain or generate tissue constructs in a scaffold-free manner. There is limited evidence that microgravity condition may affect development of ovarian follicles. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of simulated microgravity on the in vitro development of m...

Previous studies have documented the detrimental effects of microgravity on human sensorimotor skills. While that work dealt with simple, laboratory-type skills, we now evaluate the effects of microgravity on a complex, realistic instrument-control skill. Twelve participants controlled a simulated power plant during the short-term microgravity intervals of parabolic flight as well as during lev...

Three-dimensional suspension culture is a gravity-limited phenomenon. The balancing forces necessary to keep the aggregates in suspension increase directly with aggregate size. This leads to a self-propagating cycle of cell damage by balancing forces. Cell culture in microgravity avoids this trade-off. We determined which genes mediate three-dimensional culture of cell and tissue aggregates in ...

The attenuation of sedimentation and convection in microgravity can sometimes decrease irregularities formed during macromolecular crystal growth. Current terrestrial protein crystal growth (PCG) capabilities are very different than those used during the Shuttle era and that are currently on the International Space Station (ISS). The focus of this experiment was to demonstrate the use of a comm...

There is concern regarding the effects of microgravity exposure on cardiac function and loss of ventricular mass in astronauts. By Laplace’s law, the geometry of the ventricle is important in determining segmental wall stress and can induce alterations in myocardial mass. If microgravity exposure results in a variation in the ventricular radius of curvature, then we might also expect some cardi...

On Earth, biological systems have evolved in response to environmental stressors, interactions dictated by physical forces that include gravity. The absence of gravity is an extreme stressor and the impact of its absence on biological systems is ill-defined. Astronauts who have spent extended time under conditions of minimal gravity (microgravity) experience an array of biological alterations, ...

Long-term spaceflights will eventually become an inevitable occurrence. Previous studies have indicated that oral infectious diseases, including dental caries, were more prevalent in astronauts due to the effect of microgravity. However, the impact of the space environment, especially the microgravity environment, on the virulence factors of Streptococcus mutans, a major caries-associated bacte...

Designing a reliable plant growth system for crop production in space requires the understanding of pore fluid distribution in porous media under microgravity. The objective of this experimental investigation, which was conducted aboard NASA KC-135 reduced gravity flight, is to study possible particle separation and the distribution of discontinuous wetting fluid in porous media under micrograv...