Space Travel Found To Disrupt Normal Rhythm in Heart Muscle Cells | Low gravity weakens bioengineered heart tissues, impacting function and rhythm.
https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/space-travel-found-to-disrupt-normal-rhythm-in-heart-muscle-cells-391307
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From the article: Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists who arranged for 48 human bioengineered heart tissue samples to spend 30 days at the International Space Station report evidence that the low gravity conditions in space weakened the tissues and disrupted their normal rhythmic beats when compared to earth-bound samples from the same source.
The scientists said the heart tissues “really don’t fare well in space,” and over time, the tissues aboard the space station beat about half as strong as tissues from the same source kept on Earth.
[The findings](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2404644121), they say, expand scientists’ knowledge of low gravity’s potential effects on astronauts’ survival and health during long space missions, and they may serve as models for studying heart muscle aging and therapeutics on Earth.
>Spaceflight EHTs exhibited significantly reduced twitch forces, increased incidences of arrhythmias, and increased signs of sarcomere disruption and mitochondrial damage. Transcriptomic analyses showed an up-regulation of genes and pathways associated with metabolic disorders, heart failure, oxidative stress, and inflammation, while genes related to contractility and calcium signaling showed significant down-regulation
so part of that makes sense, you don’t have blood trying to migrate with gravity. the oxidative stress and inflammation is interesting. there was another study posted here months ago that reported other issues with lack of gravity and its sorta seems that if people wanna spend vast amounts of time in space, we need artificial gravity and it also seem like differing gravity on other planets is gonna fuck us up too.