TY - JOUR

T1 - Changes in Exosome Release in Thyroid Cancer Cells after Prolonged Exposure to Real Microgravity in Space

AU - Wise, Petra M.

AU - Neviani, Paolo

AU - Riwaldt, Stefan

AU - Corydon, Thomas Juhl

AU - Wehland, Markus

AU - Braun, Markus

AU - Krüger, Marcus

AU - Infanger, Manfred

AU - Grimm, Daniela

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), BMWi projects 50WB1524 and 50WB1924 (D.G.). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/2

Y1 - 2021/2

N2 - Space travel has always been the man’s ultimate destination. With the ability of spaceflight though, came the realization that exposure to microgravity has lasting effects on the human body. To counteract these, many studies were and are undertaken, on multiple levels. Changes in cell growth, gene, and protein expression have been described in different models on Earth and in space. Extracellular vesicles, and in particular exosomes, are important cell-cell communicators, being secreted from almost all the cells and therefore, are a perfect target to further investigate the underlying reasons of the organism’s adaptations to microgravity. Here, we studied supernatants harvested from the CellBox-1 experiment, which featured human thyroid cancer cells flown to the International Space Station during the SpaceX CRS-3 cargo mission. The initial results show differences in the number of secreted exosomes, as well as in the distribution of subpopulations in regards to their surface protein expression. Notably, alteration of their population regarding the tetraspanin surface expression was observed. This is a promising step into a new area of microgravity research and will potentially lead to the discovery of new biomarkers and pathways of cellular cross-talk.

AB - Space travel has always been the man’s ultimate destination. With the ability of spaceflight though, came the realization that exposure to microgravity has lasting effects on the human body. To counteract these, many studies were and are undertaken, on multiple levels. Changes in cell growth, gene, and protein expression have been described in different models on Earth and in space. Extracellular vesicles, and in particular exosomes, are important cell-cell communicators, being secreted from almost all the cells and therefore, are a perfect target to further investigate the underlying reasons of the organism’s adaptations to microgravity. Here, we studied supernatants harvested from the CellBox-1 experiment, which featured human thyroid cancer cells flown to the International Space Station during the SpaceX CRS-3 cargo mission. The initial results show differences in the number of secreted exosomes, as well as in the distribution of subpopulations in regards to their surface protein expression. Notably, alteration of their population regarding the tetraspanin surface expression was observed. This is a promising step into a new area of microgravity research and will potentially lead to the discovery of new biomarkers and pathways of cellular cross-talk.

KW - Cell culture

KW - Exosomes

KW - Microgravity

KW - Spaceflight

KW - Tetraspanins

KW - Thyroid cancer

KW - Transmembrane pro-teins

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100937901&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijms22042132

DO - 10.3390/ijms22042132

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33669943

AN - SCOPUS:85100937901

VL - 22

JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences

JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences

SN - 1661-6596

IS - 4

M1 - 2132

ER -