For the next two years, Washington University biomedical researcher Alix Deymier-Black will be working on protecting astronauts’ health during long-term space flight, thanks to a First Award Fellowship from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. We asked Deymier-Black to explain her work.
What health challenges are associated with space flight? A lot of astronauts get osteoporosis. Obviously, they’re not really using their muscles in space, because you don’t have to carry yourself. There’s no effort in standing or sitting. So they get major muscle loss. A lot of astronauts come back to Earth, and they are too weak to walk.
And what will you be studying? I am looking specifically where tendons and bones attach. A lot of times, people don’t focus on those interfaces between the two materials, but they’re really important mechanically. So what I’m proposing to look at is what happens when you take off gravity at those interfacial sites.
What’s your method? We use Botox to paralyze some of the muscles in the shoulders of mice. Because you’re not able to move the shoulder, you’re not applying any sort of force, so that mimics to some extent the loss of gravity. So if you were in space for six months, what would happen to that attachment site? Would you end up having damage? Would it just whittle away?
If you do find damage, will you also search for solutions? Botox only lasts for short periods. So we can paralyze the mice for a certain period of time, and then, once the Botox wears off, see if we give them extra exercise, are they able to recover? Or if we give them a high-calcium diet, is that going to help them recover?
