MIT pushes bone loss study in space that affects 650 million globally

Astronaut David Saint-Jacques conducts samples for the study. NASA

A groundbreaking study on the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory has led to a new tissue chip model that mimics the early stages of osteoarthritis after joint injuries.

Osteoarthritis is a common joint disease that affects over 650 million people worldwide, causing pain and stiffness in joints. Unfortunately, there are few treatment options available.

However, scientists have made a breakthrough with a study conducted on the ISS National Laboratory.

They have developed an innovative tissue chip model that can precisely recreate the early stages of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), a form of the disease that occurs after a joint injury.

Innovative space experiment sheds light on joint disease

Alan Grodzinsky, a biological engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), elaborates on the pioneering experiments conducted aboard the space station. Grodzinsky’s team developed an innovative tissue chip model that successfully mimics a joint environment using viable human cartilage, bone, and synovium co-cultures.

This model establishes a crucial baseline for studying and testing treatments for PTOA, a form of osteoarthritis that can develop following a traumatic joint injury and affects about 20 percent of people who suffer from osteoarthritis.

Grodzinsky highlighted the importance of this breakthrough, stating, “This opens up new possibilities for testing drugs and interventions for osteoarthritis and other joint disorders. It could also aid in developing preventative treatments.”

The study’s success underscores the unique advantages of conducting biomedical research in space, where the microgravity environment can accelerate the manifestation of certain disease characteristics, providing researchers with faster and more precise data.

Space environment accelerates disease research

The ISS’s microgravity environment played a crucial role in the success of the experiment. It enabled the rapid simulation of osteoarthritis characteristics, which usually progress slowly on Earth.

Previous research has shown that bone loss accelerates in microgravity, suggesting that other musculoskeletal conditions might also progress faster, allowing for more efficient study and testing.

Key findings from the study, published in Frontiers in Space, indicate the tissue chip’s remarkable ability to emulate both the initiation and progression of PTOA, as well as the effects of various treatments. The device effectively simulated the impact of commonly used anti-inflammatory and pain-relief drugs on joint tissues.

Moreover, it demonstrated potential for evaluating a drug designed to stimulate cartilage growth and repair, opening promising avenues for therapeutic intervention.

Grodzinsky emphasized the transformative potential of this research, noting, “By providing a platform for precise and controlled experimentation, the tissue chip model offers researchers a powerful tool to explore the mechanisms underlying joint diseases and develop targeted therapeutic strategies.”

This advancement is particularly critical given the current lack of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approveddrugs specifically for treating or preventing osteoarthritis.

The research was also published in Upward, the official magazine of the ISS National Lab.

About ISS National Laboratory

The ISS National Laboratory is a unique facility that supports research and technology development not possible on Earth. Managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) in partnership with NASA, it provides access to the ISS’s microgravity environment for U.S. government agencies, academic institutions, and the private sector.

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