Effect of spaceflight on liver from mice flown on the ISS for 33 days: transcriptional analysis

The objective of the Rodent Research-9 (RR-9) mission was to use mice to understand the molecular basis of phenomena that affect astronauts during long-duration spaceflight, particularly visual impairment and joint tissue degradation. To this end, a flight group (FLT) of 10 week-old male C57BL/6J mice were launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on 8/14/2017 and housed in Rodent Habitats on the ISS for 33 days before being returned alive to Earth. After splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, the animals were transported to Loma Linda University (LLU) for testing, euthanasia and dissection on 9/18/2018. A Basal Control (BSL) was housed in standard cages at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and euthanized one day after launch of the FLT animals (8/15/2017). Ground Control (GC) and Vivarium Control (VIV) studies were planned to commence at KSC approximately one-week after the conclusion of the flight experiments. However, all the GC and VIV mouse studies at KSC had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Irma and potential adverse effects on the animal housing facility. The GC and VIV studies were therefore rescheduled and begun in May, 2018. The GC was euthanized and dissected 6/18/2018 - 6/20/2018, while the VIV was euthanized and dissected 6/22/2018 - 6/23/2018. Because this resulted in a different cohort of mice being used for the GC and VIV controls as compared to the flight (FLT) and basal (BSL) groups, two cohort controls were included in the study. The first, Cohort Control 1 (CC_C1), was from the same cohort as the FLT and BSL animals, and was sacrificed and dissected 4 days after the FLT group (9/22/2017). The second, Cohort Control 2 (CC_C2), was from the same cohort as the GC and VIV animals, and was sacrificed and dissected 2-8 days after the GC and VIV groups, (6/24/2018 - 6/26/2018). The CC_C1 and CC_C2 groups were housed in standard cages and fed standard chow in contrast to all other groups which received Rodent Foodbars. To clarify the connections between treatment groups and animal cohorts, the following group abbreviations are used in the sample metadata: Flight (FLT_C1); Basal (BSL_C1); Ground Control (GC_C2); Vivarium Control (VIV_C2), Cohort Control 1 (CC_C1); Cohort Control 2 (CC_C2). Upon dissection, livers were preserved in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 C before RNA was extracted, libraries generated (stranded, ribodepleted) and sequenced (target 60 M clusters at PE 150 bp).

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  "026:00"
]

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  "026:000"
]

[
  "Biological and Physical Sciences"
]