Bone in Space

Weightlessness looks like fun but as astronauts know, prolonged exposure to zero gravity can weaken bones. Studies show that astronauts lose one to two percent of bone mass every month in space. Now, researchers are blasting mouse bone cells called osteocytes (pictured) up to the International Space Station to figure out why. Osteocytes can sense mechanical forces acting on bones, and respond by telling other bone cells to make or remove bone. The team plans to freeze the samples at various intervals to see how exposure to microgravity changes the osteocytes and the gene activity within those cells. If they can work out why bone loss happens so quickly in space it might be possible to counteract it, enabling longer space missions. But the results may also help people on Earth with osteoporosis, a condition in which bone loss makes bones fragile and prone to fracture.

Written by Daniel Cossins

Daniel Cossins

Writer

As a freelance science writer, Dan's work has been published in award-winning magazines including BBC Focus, Wired UK, Cosmos, BBC Knowledge, BBC History and Men's Health.

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• Image by L Bonewald
• Johnson Space Center, NASA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence
• Research published from NASA, April 2015