Albi E, Ambesi-Impiombato F S, Lazzarini A, Lazzarini R, Floridi A, Cataldi S, Loreti E, Ferri I, Curcio F
1 Laboratory of Nuclear Lipid BioPathology , CRABiON, Perugia, Italy .
Astrobiology. 2014 Jul;14(7):563-7. doi: 10.1089/ast.2014.1166. Epub 2014 Jun 19.
During space missions, astronauts work in a state of separation from their daily social environment and in physical confinement. It has been shown that confinement influences mood and brain cortical activity, but no data has been obtained with regard to its effect on the thyroid gland, the structure and function of which change during spaceflights. Here, we report the results of a study on the effects of confinement on mouse thyroid, which was implemented with the Mice Drawer System Facility maintained on the ground, a system used for spaceflight experiments. The results show that confinement changes the microscopic structure of the thyroid gland and that it exhibits symptoms similar to those that result from physiological and/or pathological hyperfunction. What is left unchanged, however, is the sphingomyelinase-thyrotropin receptor relationship, which is important for thyrotropin response with a consequential production of hormones that act on the metabolism of almost all tissues and reduces the production of calcitonin, a hormone involved in bone metabolism. During space missions, the overexpression of pleiotrophin, a widespread cytokine up-regulated after tissue injury that acts on bone remodeling, attenuates changes to the thyroid that are spaceflight-dependent; therefore we studied the thyroids of pleiotrophin-transgenic mice in the Mice Drawer System Facility. In confinement, pleiotrophin overexpression does not protect from the loss of calcitonin. The contribution of confinement to thyroid damage during spaceflights is discussed.
在太空任务期间，宇航员在与日常社交环境隔绝且身体受限的状态下工作。研究表明，受限会影响情绪和大脑皮层活动，但关于其对甲状腺的影响尚未获得相关数据，而甲状腺的结构和功能在太空飞行期间会发生变化。在此，我们报告一项关于受限对小鼠甲状腺影响的研究结果，该研究是利用地面上维持的小鼠抽屉系统设施进行的，这是一种用于太空飞行实验的系统。结果表明，受限会改变甲状腺的微观结构，并且呈现出与生理和/或病理性功能亢进所导致的症状相似的症状。然而，鞘磷脂酶 - 促甲状腺激素受体关系并未改变，这种关系对于促甲状腺激素反应很重要，促甲状腺激素反应会相应产生作用于几乎所有组织代谢的激素，并减少参与骨代谢的降钙素的产生。在太空任务期间，多效生长因子（一种在组织损伤后上调的广泛存在的细胞因子，作用于骨重塑）的过表达会减弱与太空飞行相关的甲状腺变化；因此，我们在小鼠抽屉系统设施中研究了多效生长因子转基因小鼠的甲状腺。在受限情况下，多效生长因子的过表达并不能防止降钙素的减少。本文讨论了受限对太空飞行期间甲状腺损伤的影响。
