# Osteoporosis research blasts off into space

Category: Health and Wellness

## Post 1 by medical queen (This site is so "educational") on Saturday, 01-Sep-2007 16:13:33

Researchers are aiming to make advances in how to treat and understand osteporosis -- by blasting bone specimens into space.
While it may seem like an unorthodox method to study the disease, which causes a decrease in bone density and bone loss, it is actually a "common sense"
approach, according to Rene Harrison, a cell biologist at the University of Toronto Scarborough.
"We're always being told to engage in these weight bearing activities and it's important for bone health. So if you remove that influence, that weight,
that gravity, then it's not surprising that you in fact lose bone mass, in that instance, in microgravity," Harrison told CTV's Canada AM.
Astronauts in particular, lose bone mass when they are in space because of the lack of gravity, and many suffer from a particularly severe form of the bone
disease called "disuse osteoporosis" which can leave patients bedridden or paralyzed.
Degrading bone conditions would be a concern for future missions to Mars, because they would mean a three-year round trip for astronauts. Consequently,
research into osteoporosis in space could yield beneficial results.
"Space is an ideal great big laboratory to study this, so it's really the perfect platform for us to look at this kind of osteoporosis because there's absolutely
no weight at all," said Harrison. "It can analyze the bone cells and say, 'OK, what's gone wrong?' and then apply that here."
Harrison's research will also aim to benefit those who suffer from disuse osteoporosis on Earth. Her all-female team, one of three Canadian contingents
taking part in the mission, will focus on looking at the interaction of bone making and bone degrading cells. In a healthy person these cells are equal,
but in someone who has osteoporosis, the balance shifts and their research will aim to investigate how this shift occurs.
The bone cell specimens will be blasted off into space on September 14 from Kazakhstan as a joint venture between the Canadian Space Agency and the European
Space Agency (ESA).
The bone cells will be in space for 12 days and will be isolated and incubated at a regular body temperature. The only difference between the bone cells
in space and the replica set of cells that will be on the ground in Russia will be the gravity in the two environments.
A similar experiment was aboard the space shuttle Columbia but the results were lost when the shuttle exploded re-entering the atmosphere in 2004.
After the experiment, the capsule carrying the bone specimens will reenter the earth's atmosphere and will land between Russia and Kazakhstan.
Harrison's team will eventually bring the specimens back to the University of Toronto Scarborough campus for analysis, which is expected to last around
four months.
"Then the next stage starts and that's trying these therapeutic interventions and unfortunately that takes a lot longer," Harrison said.

## Post 2 by The SHU interpreter (I just keep on posting!) on Wednesday, 12-Sep-2007 21:50:11

that's interesting.
but does going out into space affect a woman's menstrual cycle? how?

## Post 3 by The SHU interpreter (I just keep on posting!) on Wednesday, 12-Sep-2007 21:50:35

that's interesting.
but does going out into space affect a woman's menstrual cycle? how?