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Made of soft plastic, the fabric chips have ports to provide nutrients and oxygen to the cells.
NASA plans to send small devices containing human cells in a three-dimensional matrix, called tissue chips or organs-on-chips – to the International Space Station (ISS) to test their response to stress, drugs and genetic modifications.
Made of soft plastic, fabric chips have ports and channels to provide nutrients and oxygen to the cells.
The "Tissue Chips in Space" initiative seeks to better understand the role of microgravity on human health and disease and to translate that understanding into an improvement in human health on Earth, NASA said.
"Spaceflight causes many significant changes in the human body," said Liz Warren, Associate Program Scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) in the United States. United.
"We expect tissue shavings in space to behave like an astronaut's body and undergo the same type of rapid change," Warren said.
The US Space Agency plans the investigations in collaboration with CASIS and the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Many changes in the human body caused by microgravity. resemble the appearance and progression of diseases badociated with aging on Earth, such as bone and muscle loss. But space-related changes occur much more quickly.
This means that scientists may be able to use fabric chips in space to model changes that may take months or even years on Earth.
This first phase of Tissue Chips in Space includes five investigations. A survey on the aging of the immune system is planned for the launch of the SpaceX CRS-16 flight, scheduled for this year.
The other four projects, scheduled for launch at SpaceX CRS-17 or later flights, include lung host defense, blood-brain barrier, musculoskeletal disease and renal function.
In addition, four more projects are expected to be launched in the summer of 2020, including two on artificial heart tissue to understand cardiovascular health, one on muscle wasting and another on intestinal inflammation.
Also called micro-physiological system, a According to Lucie Low, scientific program manager at the National Center for the Advancement of Translational Sciences in the United States, the tissue chip needs three main properties.
"It must be in 3D because humans are in 3D," she said.
"It has to have multiple types of cells, because an organ is made up of all types of tissues, it must also have microfluidic channels, because every tissue in your body has blood vessels to bring blood and nutrients and to remove trash, "she added.
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