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Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading

The hindlimb unloading (HU) model has been used extensively to simulate the cephalad fluid shift and musculoskeletal disuse observed in spaceflight with its application expanding to study immune, cardiovascular and central nervous system responses, among others. Most HU studies are performed with si...

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Autores principales: Tahimic, Candice G. T., Paul, Amber M., Schreurs, Ann-Sofie, Torres, Samantha M., Rubinstein, Linda, Steczina, Sonette, Lowe, Moniece, Bhattacharya, Sharmila, Alwood, Joshua S., Ronca, April E., Globus, Ruth K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31572207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.01147
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author Tahimic, Candice G. T.
Paul, Amber M.
Schreurs, Ann-Sofie
Torres, Samantha M.
Rubinstein, Linda
Steczina, Sonette
Lowe, Moniece
Bhattacharya, Sharmila
Alwood, Joshua S.
Ronca, April E.
Globus, Ruth K.
author_facet Tahimic, Candice G. T.
Paul, Amber M.
Schreurs, Ann-Sofie
Torres, Samantha M.
Rubinstein, Linda
Steczina, Sonette
Lowe, Moniece
Bhattacharya, Sharmila
Alwood, Joshua S.
Ronca, April E.
Globus, Ruth K.
author_sort Tahimic, Candice G. T.
collection PubMed
description The hindlimb unloading (HU) model has been used extensively to simulate the cephalad fluid shift and musculoskeletal disuse observed in spaceflight with its application expanding to study immune, cardiovascular and central nervous system responses, among others. Most HU studies are performed with singly housed animals, although social isolation also can substantially impact behavior and physiology, and therefore may confound HU experimental results. Other HU variants that allow for paired housing have been developed although no systematic assessment has been made to understand the effects of social isolation on HU outcomes. Hence, we aimed to determine the contribution of social isolation to tissue responses to HU. To accomplish this, we developed a refinement to the traditional NASA Ames single housing HU system to accommodate social housing in pairs, retaining desirable features of the original design. We conducted a 30-day HU experiment with adult, female mice that were either singly or socially housed. HU animals in both single and social housing displayed expected musculoskeletal deficits versus housing matched, normally loaded (NL) controls. However, select immune and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses were differentially impacted by the HU social environment relative to matched NL controls. HU led to a reduction in % CD4(+) T cells in singly housed, but not in socially housed mice. Unexpectedly, HU increased adrenal gland mass in socially housed but not singly housed mice, while social isolation increased adrenal gland mass in NL controls. HU also led to elevated plasma corticosterone levels at day 30 in both singly and socially housed mice. Thus, musculoskeletal responses to simulated weightlessness are similar regardless of social environment with a few differences in adrenal and immune responses. Our findings show that combined stressors can mask, not only exacerbate, select responses to HU. These findings further expand the utility of the HU model for studying possible combined effects of spaceflight stressors.
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spelling pubmed-67533292019-09-30 Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading Tahimic, Candice G. T. Paul, Amber M. Schreurs, Ann-Sofie Torres, Samantha M. Rubinstein, Linda Steczina, Sonette Lowe, Moniece Bhattacharya, Sharmila Alwood, Joshua S. Ronca, April E. Globus, Ruth K. Front Physiol Physiology The hindlimb unloading (HU) model has been used extensively to simulate the cephalad fluid shift and musculoskeletal disuse observed in spaceflight with its application expanding to study immune, cardiovascular and central nervous system responses, among others. Most HU studies are performed with singly housed animals, although social isolation also can substantially impact behavior and physiology, and therefore may confound HU experimental results. Other HU variants that allow for paired housing have been developed although no systematic assessment has been made to understand the effects of social isolation on HU outcomes. Hence, we aimed to determine the contribution of social isolation to tissue responses to HU. To accomplish this, we developed a refinement to the traditional NASA Ames single housing HU system to accommodate social housing in pairs, retaining desirable features of the original design. We conducted a 30-day HU experiment with adult, female mice that were either singly or socially housed. HU animals in both single and social housing displayed expected musculoskeletal deficits versus housing matched, normally loaded (NL) controls. However, select immune and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses were differentially impacted by the HU social environment relative to matched NL controls. HU led to a reduction in % CD4(+) T cells in singly housed, but not in socially housed mice. Unexpectedly, HU increased adrenal gland mass in socially housed but not singly housed mice, while social isolation increased adrenal gland mass in NL controls. HU also led to elevated plasma corticosterone levels at day 30 in both singly and socially housed mice. Thus, musculoskeletal responses to simulated weightlessness are similar regardless of social environment with a few differences in adrenal and immune responses. Our findings show that combined stressors can mask, not only exacerbate, select responses to HU. These findings further expand the utility of the HU model for studying possible combined effects of spaceflight stressors. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-09-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6753329/ /pubmed/31572207 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.01147 Text en Copyright © 2019 Tahimic, Paul, Schreurs, Torres, Rubinstein, Steczina, Lowe, Bhattacharya, Alwood, Ronca and Globus. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Tahimic, Candice G. T.
Paul, Amber M.
Schreurs, Ann-Sofie
Torres, Samantha M.
Rubinstein, Linda
Steczina, Sonette
Lowe, Moniece
Bhattacharya, Sharmila
Alwood, Joshua S.
Ronca, April E.
Globus, Ruth K.
Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title_full Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title_fullStr Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title_full_unstemmed Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title_short Influence of Social Isolation During Prolonged Simulated Weightlessness by Hindlimb Unloading
title_sort influence of social isolation during prolonged simulated weightlessness by hindlimb unloading
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6753329/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31572207
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.01147
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