The scientists are planning to fly miniature livers to the International Space Station (ISS) for an upcoming 'out-of-world' study to determine if microgravity can encourage the growth of healthy tissue with sufficient blood supply. The study has the potential to transform the future of tissue engineering and liver transplantation through innovative research. Dr Tammy Chang, a professor of surgery at the University of California, San Francisco is pioneering the self-assembly of human livers in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) - the area of space below an altitude of 2,000 km.
"My ultimate goal for these tissues, if they are doing what we imagine and hope they are able to become with the help of microgravity, is to use these tissues for therapy," Dr Chang was quoted as saying by LiveScience.
Chang and his colleagues at the Chang Laboratory for Liver Tissue Engineering believe that cells might grow better in a sustained, high-quality microgravity environment like that found on the ISS. One of the major components of the study is the development of a custom bioreactor, dubbed the "Tissue Orb" -- designed to facilitate tissue self-assembly in the weightless environment of space.
"Our goal is to develop robust preservation techniques that allow us to bring functional tissues back to Earth, where they can be used for a range of biomedical applications, including disease modelling, drug testing, and eventually, therapeutic implantation," Chang added.
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Why not grow on Earth?
Growing tissues in labs on Earth can be a challenging task as gravity pulls cells into contact with the bottom of a plate or dish. Additionally, the cells are put under excessive stress because to keep the cells suspended as they grow, their dish needs to be agitated.
However, the ISS provides a unique microgravity environment where cells outside the human body behave similarly to how they do inside the human body. The liver-tissue experiment will fly to the ISS in early 2025. The tissues will be grown aboard for two weeks and then set in a preservative solution, for analysis back on Earth.
A second experiment study, scheduled for 2025 or early 2026, will then test a supercooling system for bringing back live tissues Earthside.
