Mechano-immunology in microgravity

Life Sci Space Res (Amst). 2023 May:37:50-64. doi: 10.1016/j.lssr.2023.03.001. Epub 2023 Mar 7.

Abstract

Life on Earth has evolved to thrive in the Earth's natural gravitational field; however, as space technology advances, we must revisit and investigate the effects of unnatural conditions on human health, such as gravitational change. Studies have shown that microgravity has a negative impact on various systemic parts of humans, with the effects being more severe in the human immune system. Increasing costs, limited experimental time, and sample handling issues hampered our understanding of this field. To address the existing knowledge gap and provide confidence in modelling the phenomena, in this review, we highlight experimental works in mechano-immunology under microgravity and different computational modelling approaches that can be used to address the existing problems.

Keywords: Computational modelling; Immune system; Mechano-immunology; Mechanotransduction; Microgravity.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Earth, Planet
  • Humans
  • Weightlessness*