Transcriptomic Effects on the Mouse Heart Following 30 Days on the International Space Station.

Efforts to understand the impact of spaceflight on the human body stem from growing interest in long-term space travel. Multiple organ systems are affected by microgravity and radiation, including the cardiovascular system. Previous transcriptomic studies have sought to reveal the changes in gene expression after spaceflight. However, little is known about the impact of long-term spaceflight on the mouse heart in vivo. This study focuses on the transcriptomic changes in the hearts of female C57BL/6J mice flown on the International Space Station (ISS) for 30 days. RNA was isolated from the hearts of three flight and three comparable ground control mice and RNA sequencing was performed. Our analyses showed that 1147 transcripts were significantly regulated after spaceflight. The MAPK, PI3K-Akt, and GPCR signaling pathways were predicted to be activated. Transcripts related to cytoskeleton breakdown and organization were upregulated, but no significant change in the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) components or oxidative stress pathway-associated transcripts occurred. Our results indicate an absence of cellular senescence, and a significant upregulation of transcripts associated with the cell cycle. Transcripts related to cellular maintenance and survival were most affected by spaceflight, suggesting that cardiovascular transcriptome initiates an adaptive response to long-term spaceflight.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Maintainer Open Science Data Repository Help Desk
Last Updated April 3, 2025, 21:48 (UTC)
Created March 20, 2025, 20:24 (UTC)
accessLevel public
bureauCode {026:00}
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
harvest_object_id 9ccf2dc1-f680-45cf-92e3-c72fdb3d678c
harvest_source_id 44069cc8-d515-495f-9ea4-b67f76a0a7cb
harvest_source_title Science Discovery Engine
identifier 10.26030/ev5t-0604
modified 2025-03-20T00:00:00Z
programCode {026:000}
publisher Open Science Data Repository
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 9060176069ad724ddc2126f23da68dda417fe6dcad88137b754ae1a82ca15dbf
source_schema_version 1.1
theme {"Biological and Physical Sciences"}