physiology and space medicine (astrobiology)
Narjes Rahmanian; Azadeh Hekmat; Zahra Hajebrahimi
Volume 15, Issue 2 , June 2022, , Pages 81-92
Abstract
Muscle atrophy is one of the problems that astronauts face after returning to earth. Myostatin is a known negative regulator of muscle growth. This study aimed to investigate the effects of simulated microgravity condition on mouse myotube cells (C2C12) growth and the myostatin gene expression. The morphological ...
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Muscle atrophy is one of the problems that astronauts face after returning to earth. Myostatin is a known negative regulator of muscle growth. This study aimed to investigate the effects of simulated microgravity condition on mouse myotube cells (C2C12) growth and the myostatin gene expression. The morphological studies and MTT cytotoxicity assay showed no significant alternation in cells after 48h simulation microgravity, however, after 72h ~40% of cell death accrued (p<0.05). The AO/PI staining and DNA fragmentation analysis confirmed this observation too. Analysis of the gene expression revealed that simulated microgravity reduced myostatin gene expression significantly after 48h (p<0.0001), however, after 72h, increased significantly (P<0.001). So, inhibition of myostatin expression in differentiated myocyte cells of astronauts could be an effective procedure to reduce skeletal muscle atrophy under microgravity condition.
Azadeh Hekmat; Bahar Hajati; Zahra Hajebrahimi
Volume 13, Issue 1 , March 2020, , Pages 61-70
Abstract
Amount of space exploration investigation has been done to understand the variations in biological structure and function of living organisms in microgravity condition. Nowadays, the investigation of the microgravity from a nanoscale viewpoint is encouraged. Silver nanoparticles have been involved in ...
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Amount of space exploration investigation has been done to understand the variations in biological structure and function of living organisms in microgravity condition. Nowadays, the investigation of the microgravity from a nanoscale viewpoint is encouraged. Silver nanoparticles have been involved in large-scale production. In this research, the effect of simulated microgravity on DNA structure was studied. Additionally, the silver nanoparticles binding with DNA molecules under Earth gravity and simulated microgravity conditions by various spectroscopic instruments were investigated. The results displayed that microgravity simulation has created DNA structure variation. The binding affinity of silver nanoparticles to DNA altered. Microgravity initiated an alternation in size and surface charge of DNA and modified DNA structure from B to C-form. Consequently, based on our observation, microgravity can strictly affect the silver nanoparticles-DNA binding interaction. Our observations can open fascinating research lines in biology and biophysics.
