"Breaking News: Neuroscience results from last SpaceLand Research Flight for ISS"
SALIVARY NGF, BDNF AND CORTISOL LEVELS DURING PARABOLIC FLIGHT
Curato dai D. Santucci(a); N. Francia(a); C. Viberti(b); L. Aloe(c); E. Alleva(a)
(a)Section of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy; (b)SpaceLand Italia SRL, Grugliasco, Turin, Italy; (c)Institute of Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine, CNR, European Brain Research Institute (EBRI), Rome, Italy; (daniela.santucci@iss.it)
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a well-studied polypeptide growth factor involved in the development and maintenance of specific peripheral and central populations of neuronal cells. In the central nervous system NGF acts as trophic factor for those neurons (mainly cholinergic and peptidergic) that are known to degenerate in disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, which is becoming progressively more frequent due to the longer lifespan of the western population.
In order to evaluate NGF levels and others neurochemical parameters, known to be involved in the responses to stress, saliva samples were collected before, during and after the SpaceLand parabolic flight in Lunar-, Mars-, and Zero-gravity conditions.Among the test subjects, there was an 11 year old kid, namely the world’s youngest science test subject flying in weightlessness
Salivary levels of ngf, bdnf and cort measured during the parabolic flight
Conclusion
In agreement with previous studies on parachutists and on astronaut experiencing stress related to skydiving and space mission, experimental subjects showed an increase in salivary levels of NGF and BDNF only during specific phases of the flight. Moreover, individual as well as age-related differences have been observed. These data confirm the role of NGF and BDNF in the adaptative response to “extreme situations” involving psychological stress.
The SpaceLand team hereby underlines the importance of having demonstrated that the children’s brain tends to produce a much higher amount of hormones with respect to adults and this result, which has still to be statistically validated by involving a larger number of children as test subjects for next flight campaigns, seems to document the reason why children adapt much more easily to weightless conditions with respect to adults. For more info on how to participate to the SpaceLand Research and Educational Flight Campaigns, please check www.SpaceLand.it
