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Musculoskeletal Research
Research is conducted on the relationships between structure and
function in the body's muscular and skeletal tissues. We ask the
simple question, "If you change the functional demands on a
bone or a muscle, what effect does this change have on its structure?"
To ask such questions, one must find ways to change the physical
demands on muscle and bone. To be useful, the changes must relate
to those occurring during disease, or injury, or to other physical
demands that humans may encounter.
Weightlessness associated with space travel has long been known
to cause muscle and bone wasting.
Because there is so little gravitational resistance to motion in
space, wasting of the muscle and bone is commonly seen in our astronauts.
After prolonged space flights, some astronauts, although they functioned
well in space, have difficulty walking or even standing immediately
after their return to normal gravity on earth. This temporary loss
of function may seem a minor problem. The time that our astronauts
have spent in periods of weightlessness to date, however, cannot
compare to the months or years anticipated in future manned flights
to Mars or on the International Space Station. Understanding how
bones and muscles sense and respond to changes in physical demand
(a prime focus of the musculoskeletal studies) will be important
to NASA in managing adaptation to, and recovery from, long-term
space flight by our astronauts.
What we learn will likely be applicable not only to space medicine,
but to a variety of medical conditions that can cause both bone
and muscle wasting in persons who will live their entire lives on
this planet. Such conditions include immobility associated with
injury or illness, aging, paralysis, and dystrophic diseases of
the muscle. The musculoskeletal studies provide a unique opportunity
for collaboration between space medicine, sports medicine, and basic
biological sciences. They have the potential to allow NASA-related
studies to improve treatment of patients with some very common musculoskeletal
problems.
Brenda Klement, Ph.D.
Myrtle
Thierry-Palmer, Ph.D.
Daniel von Deutsch, Ph.D.
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