Monday 16 April 2018

Space muscles study to use tiny worms



5 April 2018

Thousands of baby worms will be sent into space later this year to help a study into muscle loss in older people.

Scientists at the University of Exeter in Devon say nematodes are being used because they have a similar muscle structure to humans.

Astronauts lose about 40% of muscle mass after 180 days while onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Researchers hope the research could help people with conditions including muscular dystrophy and diabetes.

The worms - a nematode species called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) - will blast off in a rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, on 29 November and travel 250 miles (402km) to the ISS.

They are useful to scientists studying long-term changes in human physiology because they suffer from muscle loss under many of the same conditions that people do.

Colleen Deane, a researcher at the University of Exeter, said muscles weakened in space due to a lack of gravity.


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