Abstract
BackgroundThe intestinal microbial communities and their temporal dynamics are gaining increasing interest due to the significant implications for human health. Recent studies have shown the dynamic behavior of the gut microbiota in free-living, healthy persons. To date, it is not known whether these dynamics are applicable during prolonged life sharing in a confined and controlled environment.ResultsThe MARS500 project, the longest ground-based space simulation ever, provided us with a unique opportunity to trace the crew microbiota over 520 days of isolated confinement, such as that faced by astronauts in real long-term interplanetary space flights, and after returning to regular life, for a total of 2 years. According to our data, even under the strictly controlled conditions of an enclosed environment, the human gut microbiota is inherently dynamic, capable of shifting between different steady states, typically with rearrangements of autochthonous members. Notwithstanding a strong individuality in the overall gut microbiota trajectory, some key microbial components showed conserved temporal dynamics, with potential implications for the maintenance of a health-promoting, mutualistic microbiota configuration.ConclusionsSharing life in a confined habitat does not affect the resilience of the individual gut microbial ecosystem, even in the long term. However, the temporal dynamics of certain microbiota components should be monitored when programming future mission simulations and real space flights, to prevent breakdowns in the metabolic and immunological homeostasis of the crewmembers.
Highlights
The intestinal microbial communities and their temporal dynamics are gaining increasing interest due to the significant implications for human health
The MARS500 project, with the longest ground simulation of an interplanetary space flight, provided us with a unique opportunity to address this issue, allowing tracing microbiota changes in six volunteer astronauts isolated in sealed compartments, in conditions of a regulated environment with the supply of mostly tinned foods similar to those used in the International Space Station, over 520 days of a virtual, but realistic, mission to Mars [11]
Besides shedding some light on the dynamic behavior of the intestinal microbial ecosystem under controlled confinement, our findings on microbial ecology changes experienced by MARS500 crewmembers should be considered in programming future isolation experiments or real space flights, to help preserve the physical and psychological health of spacefarers, ensuring the mission accomplishment, which is a critical issue in long-term manned interplanetary space flights
Summary
The intestinal microbial communities and their temporal dynamics are gaining increasing interest due to the significant implications for human health. Researchers have highlighted substantial interaction and exchange over time between microbial communities of co-habiting humans [7,8,9] These results suggest the potential of sharing life to lead to convergent temporal dynamics of the gut microbial ecosystem, paving the way to the possibility of steering the microbiota trajectories, by means of rational modulation of environmental factors. Further supporting the controllable nature of the microbiota and the feasibility of general microbiome-based interventions, the authors demonstrated that subjects with different species assemblages share similar, and probably universal, ecological dynamics of their microbial communities Taken together, these recent findings indicate that environmental drivers can overcome, at least in part, the individual gut microbiota specificity. Besides shedding some light on the dynamic behavior of the intestinal microbial ecosystem under controlled confinement, our findings on microbial ecology changes experienced by MARS500 crewmembers should be considered in programming future isolation experiments or real space flights, to help preserve the physical and psychological health of spacefarers, ensuring the mission accomplishment, which is a critical issue in long-term manned interplanetary space flights
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