Nichols Heather L, Zhang Ning, Wen Xuejun
Clemson-Medical University of South Carolina Bioengineering Program, Department of Bioengineering, Clemson University, Charleston, South Carolina 29425, USA.
Physiol Genomics. 2006 Aug 16;26(3):163-71. doi: 10.1152/physiolgenomics.00323.2005. Epub 2006 May 16.
Many serious adverse physiological changes occur during spaceflight. In the search for underlying mechanisms and possible new countermeasures, many experimental tools and methods have been developed to study microgravity caused physiological changes, ranging from in vitro bioreactor studies to spaceflight investigations. Recently, genomic and proteomic approaches have gained a lot of attention; after major scientific breakthroughs in the fields of genomics and proteomics, they are now widely accepted and used to understand biological processes. Understanding gene and/or protein expression is the key to unfolding the mechanisms behind microgravity-induced problems and, ultimately, finding effective countermeasures to spaceflight-induced alterations. Significant progress has been made in identifying the genes/proteins responsible for these changes. Although many of these genes and/or proteins were observed to be either upregulated or downregulated, however, no large-scale genomics and proteomics studies have been published so far. This review aims at summarizing the current status of microgravity-related genomics and proteomics studies and stimulating large-scale proteomics and genomics research activities.
在太空飞行期间会发生许多严重的不良生理变化。在探寻其潜在机制和可能的新对策过程中，人们开发了许多实验工具和方法来研究微重力引起的生理变化，范围从体外生物反应器研究到太空飞行调查。最近，基因组学和蛋白质组学方法受到了广泛关注；在基因组学和蛋白质组学领域取得重大科学突破之后，它们现在已被广泛接受并用于理解生物过程。了解基因和/或蛋白质表达是揭示微重力诱导问题背后机制的关键，最终也是找到应对太空飞行引起变化的有效对策的关键。在确定导致这些变化的基因/蛋白质方面已经取得了重大进展。尽管观察到许多这些基因和/或蛋白质要么上调要么下调，然而，到目前为止尚未发表大规模的基因组学和蛋白质组学研究。本综述旨在总结微重力相关基因组学和蛋白质组学研究的现状，并推动大规模蛋白质组学和基因组学研究活动。
