of human cells in space which reveal what happens to the body in orbit There are some spectacular images captured by astronauts in outer space. But these images of inner space, of human cells taken on the International Space Station, offer a truly unique insight of how the body reacts in orbit.
This image, titled ‘Goldfinger’ by scientists, reveals a monocyte immune cell as a translucent, burnt-orange vision flecked with green.
The human cell photo in space was taken under ‘simulated gravity’ conditions using the European Space Agency’s Kubik incubator, which uses a centrifuge to mimic gravity in the weightlessness of space. Immune cells were placed on gold-coated slides inside the incubator. As the cells migrated they removed the gold, allowing researchers on Earth to measure their movements in space.
To record this image, antibodies that light up under a fluorescence microscope were added to reveal colours and identify specific proteins.
The ESA said: ‘Some cells, such as those in muscles and our immune system, are mobile. ‘Others, such as those in our bones, are fixed.
‘Knowing how spaceflight affects the mobility of cells is important for astronauts and mission designers.’
On earth, cell motility depends on the integrity of the internal cell structure, which is known as the cytoskeleton.
Researchers from the University of Sassari, ETH Zürich’s Space Biology Group and Zero g-LifeTec found that cytoskeleton changes in weightlessness lead to reduced motility.
This process may be one of the reasons why astronauts suffer from weakened immune systems when living in space, the ESA said. It added: ‘Humans bodies have evolved to live on Earthly gravity. Astronauts’ bodies adapt to living in weightlessness in many ways.