Reanalysis of the Mars500 experiment reveals common gut microbiome alterations in astronauts induced by long-duration confinement

Maintaining astronaut health throughout long-duration spaceflight is essential to the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars. The ground-based Mars500 experiment investigated long-duration health by isolating six astronauts for 520 days, the longest controlled human confinement study conducted to date. After 520 days, astronauts had uniform strength and lean body mass losses, and increased fasting plasma glucose, calprotectin, and neutrophil levels characteristic of intestinal inflammation but previous analyses revealed no common significant changes in gut microbiota. This study reanalysed data from early (days 7–45) and late (days 420–520) faecal samples and identified 408 exact sequence variants (ESVs), including 213 shared by all astronauts. Thirty-two ESVs were significantly differentially abundant over time, including depletion of keystone resistant starch degrading, anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitivity-associated species, such as Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Ruminococcus bromii, Blautia luti, Anaerostipes hadrus, Roseburia faecis, and Lactobacillus rogosae, and enrichment of yet-to-be-cultured bacteria. Additionally, the extraordinary experimental confinement allowed observation of microbiota potentially shared between astronauts and their habitat. Forty-nine species were shared, representing 49% and 12% of the human and environmental microbiome diversity, respectively. These findings reveal the microbiota which significantly altered in relative abundance throughout confinement, including species known to influence inflammation and host glucose homeostasis consistent with astronaut symptoms. Identification of microbiome alterations after 520 days of isolation represents a missing piece connecting Mars500 astronaut physiological studies. Knowledge of the impact of long-term confinement upon the human microbiome helps to improve our understanding of how humans interact with their habitats and is a valuable step forward towards enabling long-duration spaceflight.