No defects found in reproductive ability of male mice returning from short stay in space

The human body is affected by gravity changes, radiation, and psychological stress during a stay in outer space. Technical challenges, such as a lack of adequate animal housing facilities, prevented researchers from raising experimental mammals in space and returning them to Earth. Thus, the effect of a stay in outer space on reproductive organs and fertility was not well understood.

This project team developed a habitat cage unit (HCU) capable of being installed in the Centrifuge-equipped Biological Experiment Facility (CBEF) on the ISS. The mice were placed under artificial gravity or microgravity (by centrifugation). After their return to Earth, they were compared with a “ground control” raised on the ground for the same 35-day period.

The joint team found that:

Prof. Ikawa says, “Because technological advances and the entry of private enterprises to space tourism have lowered the per person trip cost, the era where people can easily go to outer space is coming. Further analyses are necessary to examine the long-term effects of the environment in space on the male reproductive system; however, our research results will contribute to the accumulation of basic knowledge for humankind to expand the range of its activity to space.”

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