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A Decade of Simulating Space on Earth

Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;285:2181-2182.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Washington—In the late 1980s, scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) invented a way to study cell cultures in space. As a stepping stone toward understanding space biology, they wanted to grow cartilage, muscle, and other tissues to gauge the effects of radiation and microgravity on the body.

Cartilage grew for 4 months in NASA's rotating bioreactor aboard the Russian Mir space station. (Photo credit: NASA)

A primary challenge was keeping the cells suspended inside the space shuttle laboratory while awaiting launch. Storing them on traditional plates, where they felt the full tug of gravity and stuck to the bottom, defeated the point of hoisting them into space. The solution: placing the cells in a bioreactor, a gently rotating, fluid-filled growth chamber. Variations on this bioreactor theme flew on several space shuttle flights as well as on the Mir space station. The International Space Station . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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