Transcriptomic analysis of dorsal skin from mice flown on the MHU-2 mission

The JAXA MHU-2 mission had two objectives: 1) To increase understanding of effects of spaceflight on the gut environment (microbiota and metabolites) and immune system using multi-omics based analysis; 2) To evaluate whether fructo-oligosaccharides added to the diet as prebiotics improve the gut environment and immune function during spaceflight. Twelve 16-18 week old male C57BL/6J mice were singly housed in the JAXA Habitat Cage Units (HCUs) on the ISS for 30 days. Six flight mice were housed in microgravity while six were exposed to simulated 1g by centrifugation. These two flight groups were further divided in half so that three mice in each group received standard JAXA chow while the other three were fed chow supplemented with fructooligosaccharides (FOS). Mice were returned live and euthanized and dissected <1 day after splashdown. Ground controls (n=6) were asynchronous and housed in HCUs. Vivarium controls (n=6) were asynchronous and housed in standard habitats. Three ground control and three vivarium animals received standard chow while the other three each ground control and vivarium animals received FOS-supplemented chow. Ground and vivarium samples were dissected by a separate dissection team than flight samples. Dorsal skin was dissected 30 minutes after euthanasia and snap frozen in liquid nitrogen. Total RNA was extracted and sequenced at a target depth of 60 M clusters per sample (ribodepleted paired end 150). Study Factor Levels: 1)Spaceflight ug Std. Chow: 3; 2)Spaceflight ug FOS: 3; 3) Spaceflight Artificial 1g Std. Chow: 3; 4)Spaceflight Artificial 1g FOS: 3; 5)Ground 1g Std. Chow: 3; 6)Ground 1g FOS: 3; 7)Vivarium 1g Std. Chow: 3; 8)Vivarium 1g FOS: 3.