Mount Saint Vincent University

Published purpose

UNDERSTANDING MICROGRAVITY-INDUCED BONE LOSS THROUGH IN VIVO SIMULATED MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS Following a space mission, astronauts experience severe bone thinning and increased risks of fracture when back on Earth. This anomaly is due to microgravity exposure. The aim of this study is to reproduce and expose fish larvae to a simulated microgravity on Earth, and to analyse the effects on the cells of the skeleton. Fish bones strongly resemble human bones in structure. They utilize similar cell types to secrete, mineralize and degrade bone matrix, and similar signaling pathways for cell-cell communication. Thus, fish are a good model to understand the causes underlying the microgravity-induced bone fragility observed in astronauts