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Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space

Life on Earth has evolved continuously under Earth’s 1 G force and the protection of the magnetosphere. Thus, astronauts exhibit maladaptive physiological responses during space travel. Exposure to harmful cosmic radiation and weightlessness are unique conditions to the deep-space environment respon...

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Autores principales: Ly, Victoria, Velichala, Suhas Rao, Hargens, Alan R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8875500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35207555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12020268
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author Ly, Victoria
Velichala, Suhas Rao
Hargens, Alan R.
author_facet Ly, Victoria
Velichala, Suhas Rao
Hargens, Alan R.
author_sort Ly, Victoria
collection PubMed
description Life on Earth has evolved continuously under Earth’s 1 G force and the protection of the magnetosphere. Thus, astronauts exhibit maladaptive physiological responses during space travel. Exposure to harmful cosmic radiation and weightlessness are unique conditions to the deep-space environment responsible for several spaceflight-associated risks: visual impairment, immune dysfunction, and cancer due to cosmic radiation in astronauts. The evidence thus reviewed indicates that microgravity and cosmic radiation have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular, lymphatic, and vision systems of astronauts on long-duration space missions. The mechanisms responsible for the decline in these systems are potentially due to cytoskeletal filament rearrangement, endothelial dysfunction, and muscular atrophy. These factors may alter fluid hemodynamics within cardiovascular and lymphatic vasculatures such that greater fluid filtration causes facial and intracranial edema. Thus, microgravity induces cephalad fluid shifts contributing to spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS). Moreover, visual impairment via retinal ischemia and altered nitric oxide production may alter endothelial function. Based on rodent studies, cosmic radiation may exacerbate the effects of microgravity as observed in impaired endothelium and altered immunity. Relevant findings help understand the extent of these risks associated with spaceflight and suggest relevant countermeasures to protect astronaut health during deep-space missions.
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spelling pubmed-88755002022-02-26 Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space Ly, Victoria Velichala, Suhas Rao Hargens, Alan R. Life (Basel) Review Life on Earth has evolved continuously under Earth’s 1 G force and the protection of the magnetosphere. Thus, astronauts exhibit maladaptive physiological responses during space travel. Exposure to harmful cosmic radiation and weightlessness are unique conditions to the deep-space environment responsible for several spaceflight-associated risks: visual impairment, immune dysfunction, and cancer due to cosmic radiation in astronauts. The evidence thus reviewed indicates that microgravity and cosmic radiation have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular, lymphatic, and vision systems of astronauts on long-duration space missions. The mechanisms responsible for the decline in these systems are potentially due to cytoskeletal filament rearrangement, endothelial dysfunction, and muscular atrophy. These factors may alter fluid hemodynamics within cardiovascular and lymphatic vasculatures such that greater fluid filtration causes facial and intracranial edema. Thus, microgravity induces cephalad fluid shifts contributing to spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS). Moreover, visual impairment via retinal ischemia and altered nitric oxide production may alter endothelial function. Based on rodent studies, cosmic radiation may exacerbate the effects of microgravity as observed in impaired endothelium and altered immunity. Relevant findings help understand the extent of these risks associated with spaceflight and suggest relevant countermeasures to protect astronaut health during deep-space missions. MDPI 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8875500/ /pubmed/35207555 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12020268 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Ly, Victoria
Velichala, Suhas Rao
Hargens, Alan R.
Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title_full Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title_fullStr Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title_full_unstemmed Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title_short Cardiovascular, Lymphatic, and Ocular Health in Space
title_sort cardiovascular, lymphatic, and ocular health in space
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8875500/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35207555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life12020268
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