Weightless Solar Energy Collection
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Hall, F. F.↗
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Sixty days of head-down tilt bed rest with or without artificial gravity do not affect the neuromuscular secretome
Highlights: • Long-term bed rest with/without artificial gravity does not affect the neuromuscular secretome. • Serum concentrations of markers of muscle wasting are not affected by bed rest/artificial gravity. • C-terminal Agrin Fragment serum concentrations are not affected by bed rest/artificial gravity. • Human centrifugation during bed rest does not have a negative impact on the neuromuscular secretome. Artificial gravity is a potential countermeasure to attenuate effects of weightlessness during long-term spaceflight, including losses of muscle mass and function, possibly to some extent attributable to disturbed neuromuscular interaction. The 60-day AGBRESA bed-rest study was conducted with 24 participants (16 men, 8 women; 33 ± 9 years; 175 ± 9 cm; 74 ± 10 kg; 8 control group, 8 continuous (cAG) and 8 intermittent (iAG) centrifugation) to assess the impact of bed rest with or without daily 30-min continuous/intermittent centrifugation with 1G at the centre of mass. Fasting blood samples were collected before and on day 6, 20, 40 and 57 during 6° head-down tilt bed rest. Concentrations of circulating markers of muscle wasting (GDF-8/myostatin; slow skeletal muscle troponin T; prostaglandin E2), neurotrophic factors (BDNF; GDNF) and C-terminal Agrin Fragment (CAF) were determined by ELISAs. Creatine kinase activity was assessed by colorimetric enzyme assay. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted with TIME as within-subject, and INTERVENTION and SEX as between-subject factors. The analyses revealed no significant effect of bed rest or sex on any of the parameters. Continuous or intermittent artificial gravity is a safe intervention that does not have a negative impact of the neuromuscular secretome.
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
Effects of 5-Ion Beam Irradiation and Hindlimb Unloading on Metabolic Pathways in Plasma and Brain of Behaviorally Tested WAG/Rij Rats
A limitation of simulated space radiation studies is that radiation exposure is not the only environmental challenge astronauts face during missions. Therefore, we characterized behavioral and cognitive performance of male WAG/Rij rats 3 months after sham-irradiation or total body irradiation with a simplified 5-ion mixed beam exposure in the absence or presence of simulated weightlessness using hindlimb unloading (HU) alone. Six months following behavioral and cognitive testing or 9 months following sham-irradiation or total body irradiation, plasma and brain tissues (hippocampus and cortex) were processed to determine whether the behavioral and cognitive effects were associated with long-term alterations in metabolic pathways in plasma and brain. Sham HU, but not irradiated HU, rats were impaired in spatial habituation learning. Rats irradiated with 1.5 Gy showed increased depressive-like behaviors. This was seen in the absence but not presence of HU. Thus, HU has differential effects in sham-irradiated and irradiated animals and specific behavioral measures are associated with plasma levels of distinct metabolites 6 months later. The combined effects of HU and radiation on metabolic pathways in plasma and brain illustrate the complex interaction of environmental stressors and highlights the importance of assessing these interactions.
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
Effects of photon irradiation in the presence and absence of hindlimb unloading on the behavioral performance and metabolic pathways in the plasma of Fischer rats
The space environment astronauts experience during space missions consists of multiple environmental challenges, including microgravity. In this study, we assessed the behavioral and cognitive performances of male Fisher rats 2 months after sham irradiation or total body irradiation with photons in the absence or presence of simulated microgravity. We analyzed the plasma collected 9 months after sham irradiation or total body irradiation for distinct alterations in metabolic pathways and to determine whether changes to metabolic measures were associated with specific behavioral and cognitive measures. A total of 344 male Fischer rats were irradiated with photons (6 MeV; 3, 8, or 10 Gy) in the absence or presence of simulated weightlessness achieved using hindlimb unloading (HU). To identify potential plasma biomarkers of photon radiation exposure or the HU condition for behavioral or cognitive performance, we performed regression analyses. The behavioral effects of HU on activity levels in an open field, measures of anxiety in an elevated plus maze, and anhedonia in the M&M consumption test were more pronounced than those of photon irradiation. Phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan metabolism, and phenylalanine metabolism and biosynthesis showed very strong pathway changes, following photon irradiation and HU in animals irradiated with 3 Gy. Here, 29 out of 101 plasma metabolites were associated with 1 out of 13 behavioral measures. In the absence of HU, 22 metabolites were related to behavioral and cognitive measures. In HU animals that were sham-irradiated or irradiated with 8 Gy, one metabolite was related to behavioral and cognitive measures. In HU animals irradiated with 3 Gy, six metabolites were related to behavioral and cognitive measures. These data suggest that it will be possible to develop stable plasma biomarkers of behavioral and cognitive performance, following environmental challenges like HU and radiation exposure.
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
Effects of 5-ion 6-beam sequential irradiation in the presence and absence of hindlimb or control hindlimb unloading on behavioral performances and plasma metabolic pathways of Fischer 344 rats
Introduction Effects and interactions between different spaceflight stressors are expected to be experienced by crew on missions when exposed to microgravity and galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). One of the limitations of previous studies on simulated weightlessness using hindlimb unloading (HU) is that a control HU condition was not included. Methods We characterized the behavioral performance of male Fischer rats 2 months after sham or total body irradiation with a simplified 5-ion 6-mixed-beam exposure representative of GCRs in the absence or presence of HU. Six months later, the plasma, hippocampus, and cortex were processed to determine whether the behavioral effects were associated with long-term alterations in the metabolic pathways. Results In the open field without and with objects, interactions were observed for radiation × HU. In the plasma of animals that were not under the HU or control HU condition, the riboflavin metabolic pathway was affected most for sham irradiation vs. 0.75 Gy exposure. Analysis of the effects of control HU on plasma in the sham-irradiated animals showed that the alanine, aspartate, glutamate, riboflavin, and glutamine metabolisms as well as arginine biosynthesis were affected. The effects of control HU on the hippocampus in the sham-irradiated animals showed that the phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan pathway was affected the most. Analysis of effects of 0.75 Gy irradiation on the cortex of control HU animals showed that the glutamine and glutamate metabolic pathway was affected similar to the hippocampus, while the riboflavin pathway was affected in animals that were not under the control HU condition. The effects of control HU on the cortex in sham-irradiated animals showed that the riboflavin metabolic pathway was affected. Animals receiving 0.75 Gy of irradiation showed impaired glutamine and glutamate metabolic pathway, whereas animals receiving 1.5 Gy of irradiation showed impaired riboflavin metabolic pathways. A total of 21 plasma metabolites were correlated with the behavioral measures, indicating that plasma and brain biomarkers associated with behavioral performance are dependent on the environmental conditions experienced. Discussion Phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan metabolism as well as phenylalanine and tryptophan as plasma metabolites are biomarkers that can be considered for spaceflight as they were revealed in both Fischer and WAG/Rij rats exposed to simGCRsim and/or HU.
Physiology↗
Diffusion coefficient of three-dimensional Yukawa liquids
The purpose of this work is an investigation of the diffusion coefficient of the dust component in complex plasma. The computer simulation of the Yukawa liquids was made on the basis of the Langevin equation, which takes into account the influence of buffer plasma on the dust particles dynamics. The Green–Kubo relation was used to calculate the diffusion coefficient. Calculations of the diffusion coefficient for a wide range of the system parameters were performed. Using obtained numerical data, we constructed the interpolation formula for the diffusion coefficient. We also show that the interpolation formula correctly describes experimental data obtained under microgravity conditions.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
The effect of a direct current field on the microparticle charge in the plasma afterglow
Residual charges of individual microparticles forming dense clouds were measured in a RF discharge afterglow. Experiments were performed under microgravity conditions on board the International Space Station, which ensured particle levitation inside the gas volume after the plasma switch-off. The distribution of residual charges as well as the spatial distribution of charged particles across the cloud were analyzed by applying a low-frequency voltage to the electrodes and measuring amplitudes of the resulting particle oscillations. Upon “free decharging” conditions, the charge distribution had a sharp peak at zero and was rather symmetric (with charges concentrated between −10e and +10e), yet positively and negatively charged particles were homogeneously distributed over the cloud. However, when decharging evolved in the presence of an external DC field (applied shortly before the plasma switch-off) practically all residual charges were positive. In this case, the overall charge distribution had a sharp peak at about +15e and was highly asymmetric, while the spatial distribution exhibited a significant charge gradient along the direction of the applied DC field.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
The Dirac point electron in zero-gravity Kerr–Newman spacetime
Dirac’s wave equation for a point electron in the topologically nontrivial maximal analytically extended electromagnetic Kerr–Newman spacetime is studied in a limit G → 0, where G is Newton’s constant of universal gravitation. The following results are obtained: the formal Dirac Hamiltonian on the static spacelike slices is essentially self-adjoint and the spectrum of the self-adjoint extension is symmetric about zero, featuring a continuum with a gap about zero that, under two smallness conditions, contains a point spectrum. The symmetry result extends to the Dirac operator on a generalization of the zero-G Kerr–Newman spacetime with different electric-monopole/magnetic-dipole-moment ratios.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
New scientific equipment for protein crystallization in microgravity, BELKA, and its approbation on the Bion-M No. 1 spacecraft
A space experiment on the crystallization of lisozyme and glucose isomerase proteins in UK-1 and UK-2 crystallizers on the scientific equipment BELKA on the Bion-M no. 1 spacecraft was performed in April–May 2013. A ground-based experiment was carried out simultaneously at the Institute of Crystallography of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IC RAS). Transparent crystals were obtained in both cases. The lisozyme crystals grown in microgravity are larger than their terrestrial analogs. An optical study of glucose isomerase crystals grown in space has shown that the coalescence of equally oriented crystallites leads to the formation of quasi-single-crystal blocks. An X-ray diffraction experiment on lisozyme crystals has revealed the resolutions for crystals obtained under terrestrial conditions and in space to be 1.74 and 1.58 Å, respectively.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction study of porcine carboxypeptidase B
Crystals of porcine pancreatic carboxypeptidase B have been grown in microgravity by the capillary counter-diffusion method through a gel layer. The X-ray diffraction study showed that the crystals belong to sp. gr. P4{sub 1}2{sub 1}2 and have the following unit-cell parameters: a = b = 79.58 Å, c = 100.51 Å; α = β = γ = 90.00°. The X-ray diffraction data set suitable for the determination of the three-dimensional structure at atomic resolution was collected from one of the grown crystals at the SPring 8 synchrotron facility to 0.98 Å resolution.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗