Bone cell response should be accurately investigated to attain a more in-depth comprehension of those mechanisms that elicit an altered pathway responsible for a general pathological outcome. A greater understanding can then support the development of effective countermeasures to be usefully integrated in future “healthcare” programs for astronauts and Earth patients, as well. In addition, the potential to regenerate bone, according to tissue engineering principles, needs to be critically considered to develop biomimetic functional biological substitutes. This expectation can also be enhanced by exploiting calcium-phosphates and graphene as “active” means to support specific cell processes, with reference to bone tissue.
To this aim, a detailed analysis of biological assays reported to date and the definition of specific protocols for in vitro cell cultures performed using ad hoc approaches, intelligently designed for space missions, will be the main topics to be considered. Addressing those issues affecting astronauts will pave the way to tailored scientific protocols and investigational analysis for safe long-term/ long-distance missions.
Publications:
Scaffold-based bone tissue engineering in microgravity: potential, concerns and implications
One of humanity’s greatest challenges is space exploration, which requires an in-depth analysis of the data continuously collected as a necessary input to fill technological gaps and move forward in several research sectors. Focusing on space crew healthcare, a critical issue to be addressed is tissue regeneration in extreme conditions. In general, it represents one of the hottest and most compelling goals of the scientific community and the development of suitable therapeutic strategies for the space environment is an urgent need for the safe planning of future long-term manned space missions. Osteopenia is a commonly diagnosed disease in astronauts due to the physiological adaptation to altered gravity conditions. In order to find specific solutions to bone damage in a reduced gravity environment, bone tissue engineering is gaining a growing interest. With the aim to critically investigate this topic, the here presented review reports and discusses bone tissue engineering scenarios in microgravity, from scaffolding to bioreactors. The literature analysis allowed to underline several key points, such as the need for (i) biomimetic composite scaffolds to better mimic the natural microarchitecture of bone tissue, (ii) uniform simulated microgravity levels for standardized experimental protocols to expose biological materials to the same testing conditions, and (iii) improved access to real microgravity for scientific research projects, supported by the so-called democratization of space.
Authors: Federico Mochi, Elisa Scatena, Daniel Rodriguez, Maria-Pau Ginebra & Costantino Del Gaudio