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we all know that increased stress can

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lead to

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accelerated aging cardiovascular disease

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cancer and an impaired immune system a

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new study on board the station is

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looking into part of the chromosomes of

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astronauts to find out more about this

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and how space flight affects it my

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colleague lori meggs at the marshall

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space flight center recently spoke with

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the principal investigator of this first

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of its kind study and how the one-year

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crew mission is taking part

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for the twin study yeah we are going to

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be looking at telomere length and

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telomerase activity in the astronauts so

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and not only the twins we have a

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separate project where we're also

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looking at other astronauts

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but we're going to be measuring their

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telomere length and telomeres activity

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in blood samples what is that

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so telomeres are the ends of our

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chromosomes

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and they

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are very informative biomarkers of aging

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and disease like cardiovascular disease

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for example is one example that short

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telomeres have been associated with

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increased risk

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of a variety of diseases

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cardiovascular disease cancer is another

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one

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they're also important because they get

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shorter as we age just all of us we as

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we get older and cells replicate

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telomeres shorten

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so it's becoming appreciated that they

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are very informative as far as how well

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or how quickly we're aging and a lot of

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a whole variety of lifestyle factors

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contribute to telomere shortening and

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how fast they're shortening as we get

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older so things like stress

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you know all kinds of different stress

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nutritional physical

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emotional kinds of stresses can really

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shorten telomeres faster than than just

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regular lifestyles without it so the

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idea was that space flight and strapping

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yourself to a rocket is a fairly

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stressful experience and living in space

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you know what's associated with all of

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that

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would really accelerate perhaps

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scott kelly's

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telomere loss and contribute to aging

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and perhaps increased risk of disease as

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compared to his brother mark on earth

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so that that's really what started it

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that's our hypothesis um and then we're

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also going to be measuring telomerase

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activity which is the enzyme that helps

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to maintain telomeres and and try to tie

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that to the changes that we see in

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telomere length

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so we do this by drawing blood yes so we

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just

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go from blood samples and we can get the

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dna and the protein that we need

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to look at their chromosomes and to do a

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fluorescent assay where we look at

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telomere length as well as the protein

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where we look at telomerase activity

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levels in the blood how can this help me

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here on earth well i mean we're all

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worried about getting older and aging

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and how quickly or how well we're aging

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and we're all worried about increased

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risk of disease cancer cardiovascular

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disease so if we can associate or find

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some specific factors that are

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associated with space flight because

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with the twins the beautiful thing is is

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that their genetics are the same or is

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the same as we're ever going to get so

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we can we can control for that and then

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say it's just the space flight factors

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or these stress factors that are related

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to space flight that are influencing

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telomere length so we can do other

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studies to show you know well how can we

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mitigate that how could we help slow it

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down for example if it's oxidative

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stress

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can we treat with antioxidants a simple

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thing like that to help

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slow down that rate of telomere

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length loss and so that's i mean that's

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going to be something that will benefit

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everyone

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so you say it's not just the twins

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though there are other astronauts so how

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long will the study go um the twins

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asked the twin study of course the one

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year launch and then time after that

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but we timed it so that we're also doing

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other astronaut studies over the same

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period of time so we'll be able to

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compare the twins not only to each other

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or space flight factors but also compare

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them to other unrelated astronauts to

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look for individual kind of

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susceptibility factors that might also

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be contributing to

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rates at which telomeres are lost

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so what excites you about this study

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other than you know having a study

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yourself on space station yes well i

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mean just having a study on space

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station is really remarkable and it's

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been you know the challenges that you

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have thinking about how to draw blood in

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on the space station and how you get

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your samples back and just all of those

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kinds of logistics that you don't

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normally think about that's that's

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really been exciting and a lot of fun

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and just the whole group of

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investigators for the twin studies are

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also just a remarkable group and they've

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been wonderful to to work with

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and just you know to at the thought of

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being able to do something that no one's

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ever done before

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with the astronauts and and making a

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contribution to astronaut health as well