Cell and Tissue Behavior in Microgravity

Dear Colleagues,

Gravity has constantly influenced both physical and biological phenomena throughout all of Earth’s history. The gravitational field played a major role in shaping evolution when life moved from water to land, by influencing natural selection only by limiting the range of acceptable body sizes. Indeed, to counteract gravity, living organisms would need to develop systems to provide cell membrane rigidity, fluid flow regulation, and appropriate structural support and locomotion. However, gravity can influence in a more deep and subtle fashion the way cells and tissues behave and build themselves. Gravity represents an ‘inescapable’ constraint that obliges living beings to adopt only a few configurations among many others. By ‘removing’ the gravitational field, living structures will be free to recover more degrees of freedom, thus acquiring new phenotypes and new functions/properties. Microgravity provides an unexpected opportunity to study how physical cues may successfully drive several biological properties, by interacting with genomic and proteomic cues.

Therefore, it has been argued that the ultimate reason for human space exploration is precisely to enable us to discover ourselves. Controlled studies conducted in microgravity can advance our knowledge, providing amazing insights into the biological mechanism underlying physiology as well as many relevant diseases, such as cancer. Thereby, space-based investigations may serve as a novel paradigm for innovation in basic and applied science.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Direct and indirect mechanisms of gravity sensing by cells and tissues;
• Shape, cytoskeletal, and nucleoskeletal changes in microgravity;
• Changes in molecular pathways upon microgravity exposure;
• Cell fate commitment and differentiation in microgravity;
• How microgravity affects gene expression and gene regulatory circuits, including miRNAs;
• Experimental models in microgravity: from 2D to 3D cell/organoid cultures.

Dr. Mariano Bizzarri
Guest Editor

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