NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Therapy to Countermeasure Cancer in Astronauts during Exploration of Deep SpaceExposure to cosmic radiation can cause chromosomal mutations, which may lead to cancer in astronauts engaged in space exploration. Therefore, our goals are to develop countermeasures to prevent space-induced cancer using hematopoietic stem cell therapy (HSCT) and gene therapy. This presentation focuses on HSCT for cancer. Our previous experiments on a simulated, space-induced immuno-deficiency model (mouse hind limb unloading ) indicated that transplanted hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) could enhance the host's immunity by effectively eliminating bacterial infection (Ohi S, et. al. J Grav Physiol 10, P63-64, 2003; Ohi S, et. al. Proceedings of the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF) . American Institute of Physics, New York, pp. 938-950, 2004). Hence, we hypothesized that the HSCs might be effective in combating cancer as well. Studies of cocultured mouse HSCs with beta-galactosidase marked rat gliosarcoma spheroids (9L/lacZ), a cancer model, indicated antagonistic interactions , resulting in destruction of the spheroids by HSCs. Trypan Blue dye-exclusion assays were consistent with the conclusion. These results show potential usehlness of HSCT for cancer. Currently, the NASA Hydrodynamic Focusing Bioreactor (HFB), a space analog tissue/cell culture system, is being used to study invasion of the gliosarcoma (GS) spheroids into mouse brain with or without co-cultured HSCs. This may simulate the metastasis of gliosarcoma to brain. There is a tendency for the HSCs to inhibit invasion of GS spheroids into brain, as evidenced by the X-gal staining.
Document ID
20060018309
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Ohi, S.
(Howard Univ. Washington, DC, United States)
Kindred, R. P.
(Howard Univ. Washington, DC, United States)
Roach, A-N.
(Howard Univ. Washington, DC, United States)
Edossa, A.
(Howard Univ. Washington, DC, United States)
Kim, B. C.
(Howard Univ. Washington, DC, United States)
Gonda, S. R.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Emami, K.
(Wyle Labs., Inc. Houston, TX, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Aerospace Medicine
Meeting Information
Meeting: American Society for Gravitational Space Bio Annual meeting
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Country: United States
Start Date: November 9, 2004
End Date: November 12, 2004
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NCC9-142
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available