Responsible Center: NSBRI
Grant Monitor:
Center Contact:
Unique ID: 2496
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Solicitation / Funding Source: NSBRI
Grant/Contract No.: NCC 9-58-MA.002.08
Project Type: GROUND
Flight Program:
TechPort: No |
No. of Post Docs: 1
No. of PhD Candidates: 0
No. of Master's Candidates: 1
No. of Bachelor's Candidates: 1
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No. of PhD Degrees:
No. of Master's Degrees:
No. of Bachelor's Degrees:
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| Human Research Program Elements: |
None
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| Human Research Program Risks: |
None
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| Human Research Program Gaps: |
None
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| Task Description: |
Unloading of skeletal muscle system through space flight or bed rest causes profound deleterious events in the body. Muscle strength, endurance, and risk of injury are compromised. This project will perform an analysis of the expression of most all the genes expressed in skeletal muscle during unloading, and thereby provide a more global and integrated picture of potential underlying transcriptional mechanisms involved. Using microarray methodology and bioinformatics tools for analysis, these studies will characterize the influence of unloading and exercise on the differential expression of over 33,000 human genes, and in a smaller subset in rats for a translational approach to countermeasure development and comparative validation. The contrast between unloaded muscle and different forms of exercise in the same individuals will provide new insights about the key genes orchestrating the responses to altered energy demand and mechanical loading. |
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| Research Impact/Earth Benefits: |
Physical inactivity has become a pervasive problem in America that has lead to much greater costs, both in terms of individual human suffering from disease and in terms of the public health care costs associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and frailty. Our study aims to uncover some of the root causes explaining how inactivity causes diseases so that better treatments become available. Furthermore, our study aims to compare the efficacy of different exercise treatments targeted toward specific biological defects. |
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