External to internal cranial perfusion shifts during simulated weightlessness: Results from a randomized cross-over trial

Alessa L Boschert; Peter Gauger; Anja Bach; Darius Gerlach; Bernd Johannes; Jens Jordan; Zhili Li; David Elmenhorst; Andreas Bauer; Karina Marshall-Goebel; Jens Tank; Jochen Zange; Jörn Rittweger

doi:10.1038/s41526-023-00267-2

External to internal cranial perfusion shifts during simulated weightlessness: Results from a randomized cross-over trial

NPJ Microgravity. 2023 Mar 28;9(1):25. doi: 10.1038/s41526-023-00267-2.

Authors

Alessa L Boschert^{1

2}, Peter Gauger³, Anja Bach³, Darius Gerlach³, Bernd Johannes⁴, Jens Jordan⁵, Zhili Li⁶, David Elmenhorst⁷, Andreas Bauer⁷, Karina Marshall-Goebel⁸, Jens Tank³, Jochen Zange⁴, Jörn Rittweger^{4

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Muscle and Bone Metabolism, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany. alessa.boschert@uk-koeln.de.
² Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. alessa.boschert@uk-koeln.de.
³ Department of Cardiovascular Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany.
⁴ Department of Muscle and Bone Metabolism, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany.
⁵ Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Chair of Aerospace Medicine, Cologne, Germany.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
⁷ Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-2), Jülich, Germany.
⁸ KBR, Houston, TX, USA.
⁹ Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

Abstract

The exact pathophysiology of the spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) has so far not been completely elucidated. In this study we assessed the effect of acute head-down tilt position on the mean flow of the intra- and extracranial vessels. Our results suggest a shift from the external to the internal system that might play an important role in the pathomechanism of SANS.