Effects of Spaceflight on the Muscular Layers of Mouse Uterine Tissue

Authors' Affiliations

Lindsay Bruce, Student in Department of Health Sciences, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Dr. Allan Forsman, Department of Health Sciences, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN

Faculty Sponsor’s Department

Health Sciences

N/A

Additional Sponsors

N/A

Classification of First Author

Undergraduate Student

Type

Oral Non-Competitive

Project's Category

Biological Sciences, Healthcare and Medicine

Abstract or Artist's Statement

As NASA and other space programs around the world prepare to send astronauts into space for longer missions, it is becoming imperative to understand the biological effects of spaceflight on the human body. In order to better understand how the long-term spaceflight environment affects humans biologically, researchers often utilize other model organisms, like mice, whose biological systems are comparable to human body systems. Our study was performed to determine if spaceflight had any effect on the thickness of the muscular layers of the uterine tissue of female mice. In other words, how does the thickness of the muscular layers in the uterus of spaceflight mice compare to that of control mice that were not subjected to spaceflight. For this study mice were divided into 4 groups (flight animals, baseline animals, vivarium controls, and ground controls) and the flight mice subjected to 37 days of spaceflight. Upon tissue retrieval and histological preparation, five random measurements of the outer longitudinal muscular layer and five random measurements from the inner circular muscular layer of each tissue sample were made. The average thickness for each layer was then calculated and statistical analysis used to determine differences between the four groups of mice. At the time of this presentation final measurements and statistics had not been completed.

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Effects of Spaceflight on the Muscular Layers of Mouse Uterine Tissue

As NASA and other space programs around the world prepare to send astronauts into space for longer missions, it is becoming imperative to understand the biological effects of spaceflight on the human body. In order to better understand how the long-term spaceflight environment affects humans biologically, researchers often utilize other model organisms, like mice, whose biological systems are comparable to human body systems. Our study was performed to determine if spaceflight had any effect on the thickness of the muscular layers of the uterine tissue of female mice. In other words, how does the thickness of the muscular layers in the uterus of spaceflight mice compare to that of control mice that were not subjected to spaceflight. For this study mice were divided into 4 groups (flight animals, baseline animals, vivarium controls, and ground controls) and the flight mice subjected to 37 days of spaceflight. Upon tissue retrieval and histological preparation, five random measurements of the outer longitudinal muscular layer and five random measurements from the inner circular muscular layer of each tissue sample were made. The average thickness for each layer was then calculated and statistical analysis used to determine differences between the four groups of mice. At the time of this presentation final measurements and statistics had not been completed.