PubMed1991
Numerous biological experiments with cells have been conducted in space, and the importance of these experiments and this area of study is continually becoming evident. This contribution is a compilation of available information about spaceflight experiments with cells for the purpose of providing a single source of information for those interested in space gravitational cell biology. Experiments focused on a study of the effects of gravity and its absence on cells, cell function, and basic cellular processes have been included. Experiments include those involving viruses, bacteriophage, unicellular organisms, lower fungi, and animal and plant cell and tissue cultures, but exclude experiments with cells that were carried on a flight as part of a whole organism and later removed for study, and experiments with fertilized eggs. In addition, experiments in biotechnology, in which the microgravity environment is employed to study cell purification, cell fusion, protein crystallization, and similar processes, have not been included. Spaceflight experiments conducted by scientists from the U.S., U.S.S.R., and other countries and flown onboard sounding rockets (TEXUS, MAXUS, Consort), biosatellites (Biosatellite II, Cosmos), and various crewed spacecraft including the space shuttle (STS) and Soyuz, and space stations (Salyut, Mir) have been included, as well as high altitude balloon flights. Balloon flights are not spaceflights but can and are used as controls for the effects of space radiation, since organisms carried on balloons may be exposed to some of the same radiation as those taken into space, yet continue to be exposed to Earth's gravitational force. Parabolic flights on aircraft during which periods of microgravity of less than a minute are achieved have arbitrarily been excluded, because even though numerous experiments have been conducted, few results have been published.