Challenge for artificial hibernation for long-term space flight

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15045
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental physiology(including physical medicine and nutritional physiology)
• Research Institution: Japan Aerospace EXploration Agency
• Principal Investigator: Ishioka Noriaki 国立研究開発法人宇宙航空研究開発機構, 宇宙科学研究所, 専任教授 (70184471)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 石原 昭彦 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科, 教授 (90184548)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HIGASHIBATA Akira 宇宙航空研究開発機構, 有人宇宙技術部門, 主任開発員 (30360720) ; AOKI Ichio 放射線医学総合研究所, 分子イメージン研究センター, チームリーダー (10319519) ; MINATO Shusaku 関西学院大学, 教育学部, 教授 (50580669) ; TERADA Masahiro 東京慈恵医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (10553422)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 宇宙飛行 / 人工冬眠 / 筋萎縮 / 老化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We analyze changes of skeletal muscle by hibernation (low temperature environment), clarify the mechanism of action of inhibiting muscle atrophy, and aim at application to "Artificial Hibernation" which enables long-term space flight. In the low temperature condition, the activity of the oxidative enzyme of skeletal muscle of African Dormice increased, and the gene which increases or decreases the expression amount in temperature dependent manner in genes related to skeletal muscle function and metabolism was identified, and gene expression of an heat shock protein also increased.
The above results clarified the possibility to prevent functional regressive change of skeletal muscle by increasing the aerobic metabolic capacity of skeletal muscle. In addition, we investigated induction of simulated hibernation by drugs and analysis of skeletal muscle changes in rats that do not hibernate, and revealed that there is a tendency to suppress muscle atrophy even in simulated hibernation.

Free Research Field

宇宙生命科学