Radio Electric Asymmetric Conveyer (REAC) technology to obviate loss of T cell responsiveness under simulated microgravity

Current Knowledge about the Impact of Microgravity on Gene Regulation

Microgravity (µg) has a massive impact on the health of space explorers. Microgravity changes the proliferation, differentiation, and growth of cells. As crewed spaceflights into deep space are being planned along with the commercialization of space travelling, researchers have focused on gene regulation in cells and organisms exposed to real (r-) and simulated (s-) µg. In particular, cancer and metastasis research benefits from the findings obtained under µg conditions. Gene regulation is a key factor in a cell or an organism’s ability to sustain life and respond to environmental changes. It is a universal process to control the amount, location, and timing in which genes are expressed. In this review, we provide an overview of µg-induced changes in the numerous mechanisms involved in gene regulation, including regulatory proteins, microRNAs, and the chemical modification of DNA. In particular, we discuss the current knowledge about the impact of microgravity on gene regulation in different types of bacteria, protists, fungi, animals, humans, and cells with a focus on the brain, eye, endothelium, immune system, cartilage, muscle, bone, and various cancers as well as recent findings in plants. Importantly, the obtained data clearly imply that µg experiments can support translational medicine on Earth.

Antisenescence Effect of REAC Biomodulation to Counteract the Evolution of Myelodysplastic Syndrome

About 30 percent of patients diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The senescence of bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) seems to be one of the determining factors in inducing this drift. Research is continuously looking for new methodologies and technologies that can use bioelectric signals to act on senescence and cell differentiation towards the phenotype of interest. The Radio Electric Asymmetric Conveyer (REAC) technology, aimed at reorganizing the endogenous bioelectric activity, has already shown to be able to determine direct cell reprogramming effects and counteract the senescence mechanisms in stem cells. Aim of the present study was to prove if the anti-senescence results previously obtained in different kind of stem cells with the REAC Tissue optimization – regenerative (TO-RGN) treatment, could also be observed in BMSCs, evaluating cell viability, telomerase activity, p19ARF, P21, P53, and hTERT gene expression. The results show that the REAC TO-RGN treatment may be a useful tool to counteract the BMSCs senescence which can be the basis of AML drift. Nevertheless, further clinical studies on humans are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Mechano-Immunomodulation in Space: Mechanisms Involving Microgravity-Induced Changes in T Cells

Of the most prevalent issues surrounding long-term spaceflight, the sustainability of human life and the maintenance of homeostasis in an extreme environment are of utmost concern. It has been observed that the human immune system is dysregulated in space as a result of gravitational unloading at the cellular level, leading to potential complications in astronaut health. A plethora of studies demonstrate intracellular changes that occur due to microgravity; however, these ultimately fall short of identifying the underlying mechanisms and dysfunctions that cause such changes. This comprehensive review covers the changes in human adaptive immunity due to microgravity. Specifically, there is a focus on uncovering the gravisensitive steps in T cell signaling pathways. Changes in gravitational force may lead to interrupted immune signaling cascades at specific junctions, particularly membrane and surface receptor-proximal molecules. Holistically studying the interplay of signaling with morphological changes in cytoskeleton and other cell components may yield answers to what in the T cell specifically experiences the consequences of microgravity. Fully understanding the nature of this problem is essential in order to develop proper countermeasures before long-term space flight is conducted.

Physical stimulation by REAC and BMP4/WNT-1 inhibitor synergistically enhance cardiogenic commitment in iPSCs

It is currently known that pluripotent stem cells can be committed in vitro to the cardiac lineage by the modulation of specific signaling pathways, but it is also well known that, despite the significant increase in cardiomyocyte yield provided by the currently available conditioned media, the resulting cardiogenic commitment remains a highly variable process. Previous studies provided evidence that radio electric fields asymmetrically conveyed through the Radio Electric Asymmetric Conveyer (REAC) technology are able to commit R1 embryonic stem cells and human adipose derived stem cells toward a cardiac phenotype. The present study aimed at investigating whether the effect of physical stimulation by REAC in combination with specific chemical inductors enhance the cardiogenic potential in human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The appearance of a cardiac-like phenotype in iPSCs cultured in the presence of a cardiogenic medium, based upon BMP4 and a WNT-inhibitor, was consistently increased by REAC treatment used only during the early fate differentiation for the first 72 hours. REAC-exposed iPSCs exhibited an upregulation in the expression of specific cardiogenic transcripts and morphologically in the number of beating clusters, as compared to cells cultured in the cardiogenic medium alone. Our results indicate that physical modulation of cellular dynamics provided by the REAC offers an affordable strategy to mimic iPSC cardiac-like fates in the presence of a cardiogenic milieu.