Spaceflight Ages The Immune System Prematurely
Monday, February 2, 2015 - 23:00
in Biology & Nature
Mars One, a private effort to do what governments seem incapable of achieving, has believers excited about colonizing another planet, but the long-term consequences of living in low or no-gravity conditions remain unclear. Mice are not people but if they are an accurate model, it might not go well. A new paper in The FASEB Journal found that spaceflight may be associated with a process of accelerated aging of the immune system. Specifically, researchers found that mice in low gravity conditions experience changes in B lymphocyte production in their bone marrow similar to those observed in elderly mice living in Earth conditions. read more