Stem cell research is conducted not only in terrestrial laboratories, but also in space, especially in the field of tissue engineering. The task of the latter is to create full-fledged human tissues and organs that can be used to replace those affected by the disease.
Cultivating stem cells in 2D mode is not so easy due to the impossibility of reproducing the conditions of the human body in laboratories. But the microgravity conditions on the International Space Station have been shown to create better opportunities for 3D cell growth, recreating the environment in which cells normally grow in the human body. Thus, the International Space Station has become an ideal platform for tissue engineering. It is also important that more cells can be regenerated from stem cells in space than on Earth.
Today, a special Bioculture System has been created to work with the most diverse cultures of cells, tissues and microorganisms on the International Space Station. The system was successfully tested back in 2017, studying a mouse cell line and human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) obtained from induced pluripotent stem cells during the SpaceX-13 Cell Science-Validation mission (CS-V ).
The world-famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US is sending a private mission of astronauts Ax-2 to the space station to study the effect of microgravity on the production of stem cell preparations. The project is sponsored by the NASA program.
And at the beginning of 2024, sensational news spread around the world – it turns out that in the summer of 2023, a human knee meniscus was successfully printed from mesenchymal stem cells in weightlessness on board the International Space Station. This opens up new opportunities for tissue engineering of tissue and organ transplants, and the high costs of transporting cells and equipment into orbit are considered justified.
Sources: https://www.nasa.gov/ames/space-biosciences/cell-science/bioculture-system/, https://www.issnationallab.org/ax2-cedars-sinai-stem-cells/, https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/news/bioprinting-msc-outer-space
