Denhardt said.

Weightlessness

sounds relaxing, but new research shows its effects can be stressful for

bodies, creating an army to fight the disease cells. Scientists

conducted an experiment with mice that simulated weightlessness on earth

revealed that a protein called osteopontin (of ARF), a stress hormone associated with

bone loss in space may be also associated with

spleen and thymus organs. These bodies make white blood cells that fight infection - without them

body will be open season diseases. We

had no reason to think osteopontin will have no effect on the immune loss >> << body, said David Denhardt, cell biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. But when we did [experiement], we were surprised to see that

involved in this stress response. Denhardt

and work colleagues will be detailed in the Sept. 11 issue of

Materials of the National Academy of Sciences. Denhardt

explained that osteopontin is an lasix buy instigator, signaling cells to push for survival >> << and stay on the offensive during injury or stress. Although

Denhardt not clear how this process works, his team found that raising mice

hind legs - tense simulation of weightlessness - for three days

caused about 70 per cent reduction in the tissues of the spleen and thymus in comparison with the

normal mice.

Body tissue, called atrophy, and was in mice that were

stressed by isolation. Atrophy

was dramatic. It seems like simple cells to destroy the same

contrary to the known role of OPN in keeping cells alive, said Denhardt

SPACE. com. Despite the controversy, he explained, is a strange relationship. When his team conducted a similar experiment on mice bred with the inability to produce

osteopontin, they showed much less dramatic thymus and spleen tissues

loss.

We think osteopontin

controls class of hormones that suppress the immune system >> << he said. When osteopontin is not around to control hormones, immune

tissue leads as usual. While the mouse

not replace astronauts in space, Denhardt explained that research

could eventually reduce the increased risk in space

- especially when long trips

on the Moon and Mars eventually. Osteopontin

somehow important to permit an increased susceptibility to immune problems

and bone loss, Denhardt said. It's a long shot, but if we find

antibodies are able to lock osteopontin, we could reduce its impact on many

microgravity related health problems. Denhardt

imagines astronauts receiving injections of antibodies to rocket into space

. He and his team have identified a group of potential

osteopontin-silencing antibodies, but he said money to bring

research in the field of medicine is terribly low. Financing

is a big problem, Denhardt said. But the more we can get, >> << faster it will move forward. At the same time >> <<, Denhardt and his team try to piece together the mystery of how

osteopontin causes immune organ atrophy. .