In May 2017, with the NASA and ASI space mission called Expedition 52-53, a research project will also take off towards the International Space Station to discover the effects of micro-gravity on blood cells. Objective: to find new weapons against the lack of 'substance' in the astronauts' bones. And not only. Tomorrow is World Osteoporosis Day
 
 
Rome, 19 October 2016 – There will also be the blood of the prof. Mauro Maccarrone, Professor of Biochemistry at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, on the spacecraft that will take off from the United States of America next May towards the International Space Station: a special machine equipped with eight containers with its blood samples, various compounds and all the technology necessary to understand how micro-gravity modifies the characteristics of human bone cells in fact, it will start from John F Kennedy Space Center of NASA at Cape Canaveral, Florida, along with the space mission Expeditions 52-53.
 
Understand the effects of micro-gravity on bones
For the third time, the Italian astronaut from the ESA astronaut corps will also be part of the trip. Paul Nespoli. And he will probably be the one to start the procedure for activating the micro-pistons and cylinders of the equipment, which will inject –  with an automatic process at pre-programmed times on the ground by the researchers – various compounds in the blood present in the containers. The latter are each 10 centimeters long, 4 wide and 5 deep. At the end, everything will be 'frozen' below zero, so that the snapshots that photograph the modifications undergone by the blood cells over the weeks in Space can be observed and analyzed on Earth by scientists, showing them the progress of the effects of micro-gravity on blood cells over time. Objective: to find confirmations on the origin of osteoporosis so that it can be treated and, above all, prevented.
 
Astronaut stem cells
The SERISM project, launched a few months ago with a kick-off meeting at the headquarters of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), it also sees the University of Tor Vergata and that of Teramo among the partners involved, as well as NASA and ESA. As explained by Prof. Maccarrone, principal investigator of SERISM,“primary purpose of the experiment is to address the problem of the weakening of the human skeletal system in an innovative way". An issue that primarily affects astronauts. Whose bones – as is known – after a few months in micro-gravity in Space lose bone density significantly. “With these experiments – explains the teacher – we will understand if it is possible to speed up the restoration of their normal bone mass conditions through the sampling, before they leave, of stem cells present in their blood which are then capable of evolving into bone cells, as we have demonstrated in the past”. If everything works out, it will become possible restore the correct human bone density no longer thanks to a therapy or a medicine. "just – Maccarrone explains – give some astronauts' blood stem cells the right stimuli to transform into osteocytes, taking their blood and activating it so that it differentiates, and then re-introducing it into their circulation".
 
New weapons against osteoporosis from research in space
The research, in the objectives of the project, however, will not be limited to astronauts, but it will also aim to find new ways to fight osteoporosis: that process which, partly due to the decrease in limb movement stimuli, partly due to problems in the functioning of particular regulatory molecules, called endocannabinoids, generates the so-called osteopenia, i.e. the lack of bone 'material' in the skeletal system. “The second part of the project – Maccarrone clarifies – will check if we have succeeded in theidentify some 'signals' responsible for the bone weakening process, the so-called endocannabinoids. These are highly accredited substances in this sense in the world of research. This is why we decided to exploit them in Space to better understand the mechanism of osteoporosis".
 
Space will act as an accelerator of cellular processes: as for other cases, that is, it will offer Science, in an accelerated way, the possibility of evaluating and 'photograph' molecular modifications and alterations that occur much more slowly on Earth as age progresses. “If we understand what's going on up there – emphasizes the teacher – we will have a new and important tool to use on a preventive level for the pathologies of aging. In this space experiment, in particular, we will focus on a new 'package' of signals, never studied by anyone, certainly not in Space. If it goes as we hope, after the laboratory evaluation of the biological samples returned from the ISS, we will be able to propose the exploitation of endocannabinoids as therapeutic 'targets' or as a starting point for building new anti-osteoporosis drugs”. Just tomorrow, however, will be held the annual World Osteoporosis Day.
 
The role of endocannabinoids and the CB2 receptor
The endocannabinoids are hormone-like molecules, which act on particular receptors. One of them, called 'CB2' (type 2 cannabis receptor) has been proposed, in a recent study published in Nature Medicine, as an element essential for modulating bone homeostasisor bone remodeling. Its deficiency, therefore, could be an important cause of osteoporosis. "The endocannabinoids – adds Maccarrone – they act as 'signalers' of a change: they control bone metabolism. Therefore, if we are able to perceive modifications in these signals, it will be possible to verify that the CB2 receptor is altered and we are therefore at the beginning of osteopenia". "What is known to researchers – Maccarrone explains again – is that where there is osteoporosis the CB2 receptor is shown to be deficient: we already have experimental data according to which, if we block it, the bone trabeculae (the typical structures of which bone is made up) result in holes like Swiss cheese".
 
Learning to use the 'signals' of these molecules, therefore, could provide medicine new ways to prevent or treat the lack of bone 'material' typical of osteoporosis. Not only for astronauts, but also, perhaps, for i 200 million people (data: Italian Osteoporosis League) who, on Earth, are afflicted with this 'non-disease'. Which, as well, only in the USA and Europe, is the origin of approximately every year 2,3 million fractures.