Abstract
A spaceflight has enormous influence on the health of space voyagers due to the combined effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation. Known effects of microgravity (μg) on cells are changes in differentiation and growth. Considering the commercialization of spaceflight, future space exploration, and long‐term manned flights, research focusing on differentiation and growth of stem cells and cancer cells exposed to real (r‐) and simulated (s‐) μg is of high interest for regenerative medicine and cancer research. In this review, we focus on platforms to study r‐ and s‐μg as well as the impact of μg on cancer stem cells in the field of gastrointestinal cancer, lung cancer, and osteosarcoma. Moreover, we review the current knowledge of different types of stem cells exposed to μg conditions with regard to differentiation and engineering of cartilage, bone, vasculature, heart, skin, and liver constructs.
Highlights
Microgravity induces a large number of changes in specialized cells and stem cells.[1-3]
Studies in μg demonstrated that cells exposed to gravitational unloading changed their growth behavior and started growing in a two- (2D) and threedimensional (3D) manner in space and on the rotating wall vessel (RWV), the random positioning machine (RPM), CN, or on rotary cell culture systems (RCCS) (Figure 1).[1,16-20]
Microgravity provides a unique environment for cell culture and has been shown to induce cellular changes and processes that could not be achieved under normal gravitational conditions
Summary
Microgravity (μg) induces a large number of changes in specialized cells and stem cells.[1-3]. Experiments in orbit on the International Space Station (ISS), on unmanned spacecrafts or sounding rockets and on Earth using devices simulating μg such as the random positioning machine (RPM), or a clinostat (CN) demonstrated among others alterations of the cytoskeleton,[4-7] changes in the composition of the extracellular matrix,[8] focal adherence complex,[6] proliferation,[9] differentiation,[10] and growth behavior of the cells.[1]. These changes were observed in different cell types.[1].
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