Abstract
Research utilizing rodents has revealed valuable insights into how spaceflight influences fundamental processes of mammals, yielding potential translational significance for human health in Space and on Earth. Rats and mice were first flown in space in the 1950s as part of a robust program of space biology research that was expanded early on to include international collaborations. Much of this research was conducted on spacecraft in microgravity environments, including on diverse platforms such as: Gemini rockets, US Biosatellites, Apollo Command Modules, Skylab, Russian Biosatellites, NASA Space Shuttles, NASA/Mir, and on the International Space Station (ISS). Space-related research with rodents on Earth has been accomplished by established ground-based spaceflight analog approaches simulating microgravity (μg), applying chronic gravitational forces greater than the Earth’s 1 g via centrifugation (hypergravity; hg), and/or radiation exposure. This chapter reviews the space environment, key concepts, approaches, and methods applied in rodent spaceflight research; historic and recent spaceflight findings; cross-cutting variables, including age, and sex, and gender that impact biological responses to spaceflight. To-date rodent models have been used to address a mere handful of basic questions involving pharmaceuticals in space. The field of space pharmaceuticals is ripe for new understanding of drug action beyond Earth’s orbit, testing drug efficacy in combating aging-related diseases that can be modeled in μg or outside of the magnetosphere, and evaluating potential new pharmaceutical countermeasures in the space environment.
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Ronca, A.E., Lowe, M.G. (2019). Rodents as a Model for Research in Space. In: Pathak, Y., Araújo dos Santos, M., Zea, L. (eds) Handbook of Space Pharmaceuticals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50909-9_4-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50909-9_4-1
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