A new study suggests that astronauts could benefit from eating space lettuce.
Research shows that astronauts can lose 1% of their mass in a month in space. Being in space might affect genes that affect bone health, according to NASA's famous Twins Study. Special exercises are done by astronauts to help mitigate the effects.
Researchers from the University of California, Davis created an experimental strain of lettuce that contains a fragment of the human parathyroid hormone. PTH is produced by the parathyroid glands and helps with bone growth.
The researchers think that this new strain of lettuce could help astronauts maintain their bone density in space. At the American Chemical Society's spring meeting, a new study was presented.
The astronauts are growing chile peppers in space.
Administering PTH to treat bone loss might not work well for long trips. People who have low levels of the hormone in their body that increases calcium in their blood are usually given medication that increases the amount of PTH in their body. It wouldn't be an ideal solution for long-duration missions to far-off destinations like Mars.
The astronauts could grow and eat this lettuce. Two types of regular lettuce, as well as a type of mustard, radishes, and chile peppers, have already been grown by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The author of the study said that astronauts can carry tiny seeds, which can be 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465, and grow them just like regular lettuce. The genes that code for human PTH are found in the lettuce.
To develop a strain of lettuce that contains PTH, the researcher team transferred genes from the lettuce plants to the plant that produced the tail end. The fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain was used because the researchers thought it would make the hormone more stable and easier to process.
The researchers found that the lettuce they produced contained a lot of PTH-Fc. To get enough PTH from this lettuce to maintain their bone density, astronauts would have to eat around eight cups of it per day, which is a pretty big salad, as first study author and UC Davis graduate student Kevin Yates put it in a press release.
Abundant harvest in a greenhouse shows promise for moon agriculture.
According to the researchers, there could be a way to increase the amount of hormone in the plants so that astronauts wouldn't have to eat as much lettuce. The lines of lettuce that they produced had the highest amount of PTH-Fc. The team will need to conduct a lot of additional testing on the lettuce before astronauts can eat it in space. To test the effectiveness of lettuce in treating bone loss, for instance, by conducting tests on animal models.
The researchers didn't taste the lettuce because it hasn't been tested for safety. The team would need to have astronauts grow it in space to see if it contained the same amount of PTH-Fc as on Earth.
The researchers said that this lettuce could have valuable impacts. They suggest that people who don't get adequate nutrition and are at risk of developing osteoporosis could eventually use lettuce, since it has an increased risk of breaking bones.
The team said in a statement that the same method could be used with other medications, providing an effective and efficient way for astronauts to maintain their health in the resource-limited environment of a space station.
Yates said that he would be surprised if plants aren't used to produce pharmaceuticals and other beneficial compounds by the time we send astronauts to Mars.
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