Miller E S, Koebel D A, Sonnenfeld G
Medical Immunotherapy Laboratory, Don and Sybil Harrington Cancer Center, Amarillo, Texas 79106, USA.
J Appl Physiol (1985). 1995 Mar;78(3):810-3. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1995.78.3.810.
Six adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were flown on the 7-day US space shuttle mission STS-54. After flight, the spleen and thymus from each animal were assayed for the capacity to secrete the cytokines interleukin-3 (IL-3) and IL-6. Spleen and thymus cells (5 x 10(6)/ml) were incubated for 48 h in the presence of 5 micrograms/ml of concanavalin A or 2 micrograms/ml of bacterial lipopolysaccharide to stimulate the production of IL-3 and IL-6. IL-3 activity was measured using the IL-3/colony-stimulating-factor-dependent cell line 32D. IL-6 activity was measured using the IL-6-dependent cell line 7TD1. Spleen and thymus cells harvested from flown rats secreted significantly higher titers of biologically active IL-3 compared with ground control rats. Spaceflight significantly enhanced IL-6 production by thymus, but not spleen, cells. The results of this study demonstrate that spaceflight can enhance the production of certain cytokines by cells of the immune system.
六只成年雄性斯普拉格-道利大鼠搭乘美国航天飞机执行了为期7天的STS-54任务。飞行结束后，检测了每只动物脾脏和胸腺分泌细胞因子白细胞介素-3（IL-3）和IL-6的能力。将脾脏和胸腺细胞（5×10⁶/ml）在5微克/毫升伴刀豆球蛋白A或2微克/毫升细菌脂多糖存在的情况下孵育48小时，以刺激IL-3和IL-6的产生。使用依赖IL-3/集落刺激因子的细胞系32D测量IL-3活性。使用依赖IL-6的细胞系7TD1测量IL-6活性。与地面对照大鼠相比，从飞行大鼠身上采集的脾脏和胸腺细胞分泌的具有生物活性的IL-3滴度显著更高。太空飞行显著增强了胸腺细胞而非脾脏细胞的IL-6产生。这项研究的结果表明，太空飞行可增强免疫系统细胞产生某些细胞因子的能力。
