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Space flight and the immune system.
Journal article

Space flight and the immune system.

  • Cogoli A Space Biology Group Institute of Biotechnology, ETH Hönggerberg, Zürich, Switzerland.
  • 1993-01-01
Published in:
  • Vaccine. - 1993
NASA Discipline Number 00-00
NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology
NASA Program Flight
Non-NASA Center
Animals
Cells, Cultured
Humans
Immune System
Immune Tolerance
Immunoglobulins
Leukocyte Count
Lymphocyte Activation
Lymphocytes
Muramidase
Space Flight
USSR
United States
English Depression of lymphocyte response to mitogens in cosmonauts after space flight was reported for the first time in the early 1970s by Soviet immunologists. Today we know that depression of lymphocyte function affects at least 50% of space crew members. Investigations on the ground on subjects undergoing physical and psychological stress indicate that stress is a major factor in immune depression of astronauts. This is despite the fact that weightlessness per se has a strong inhibitory effect on lymphocyte activation in vitro. Although the changes observed never harmed the health of astronauts, immunological changes must be seriously investigated and understood in view of long-duration flight on space stations in an Earth orbit, to other planets such as Mars and to the Moon.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/122529
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