CAPE CANAVERAl, Fla. -- Human liver cells floating 240 miles above Earth could lend answers about how to treat liver disease.
NASA plans to blast the cells into space today aboard shuttle Endeavour.
Researchers hope what the cells do while on the International Space Station will lead to new medicines for diseases such as hepatitis C and make tissue research in space more commercially viable.
They also hope the experiment brings breakthroughs toward a better artificial liver that can keep people alive while they wait for a new liver.
"If you have liver failure now, there's no way to tide you over until a liver becomes available," said Dr. Fisk Johnson, president of Fisk Ventures and co-founder of StelSys LLC, a biotechnology research company leading the experiment.
Astronauts will thaw the cells, then incubate them in cocktails of common drugs to see how they break down the substances in space.
The 90-day experiment will compare how liver cells metabolize those drugs in low gravity with how they do so on Earth.
"If they find differences in zero (gravity), then that's very exciting," said Dr. Stephen Strom, a professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. "Nobody really knows what drugs in space are safe."
Most cells grown in labs on Earth are flat, one-cell-thick specimens that teach doctors little about how cells work together, or about the chemistry and mechanics of healthy organs. Cells can be put in a device that gently spins them in solution, mimicking a zero gravity environment. That allows them to grow more freely and maintain normal cell function longer. But space is even better for liver research, Johnson said.
"There is an enormous benefit to doing cell culturing in azero-gravity environment," he said. He hopes to prove the value of weightlessness to his biotechnology peers.
The research comes as part of a year-old agreement between NASA and StelSys, a joint venture between Fisk and In Vitro Technologies Inc.
"This will be an excellent start for commercial use of space technology," said Dr. Neal Pellis, chief of NASA's biological systems office at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We hope this is the first of many."
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2002 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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