Nutritional status assessment before, during, and after long-duration head-down bed rest.

INTRODUCTION: Bed rest is a valuable ground-based model for many of the physiological changes that are associated with spaceflight. Nutritional changes during and after 60 or 90 d of head-down bed rest were evaluated. METHODS: A total of 13 subjects (8 men, 5 women; ages 26-54 yr) participated in either 60 or 90 d of bed rest. Blood and urine were collected twice before bed rest and about once per month during bed rest. Samples were stored frozen and batch analyzed. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: During bed rest, markers of bone resorption (such as N-telopeptide excretion, P < 0.001) increased and serum concentration of parathyroid hormone decreased (P < 0.001). Also, oxidative damage markers such as superoxide dismutase increased (P < 0.05), and after 90 d of bed rest, total antioxidant capacity decreased (P < 0.05). During bed rest, iron status indices showed patterns of increased iron stores with a decreased concentration of transferrin receptors (P < 0.01). DISCUSSION: These changes are similar to some of those observed during spaceflight, and further document the utility of bed rest as a model of spaceflight.

Evaluation of treadmill exercise in a lower body negative pressure chamber as a countermeasure for weightlessness-induced bone loss: a bed rest study with identical twins.

UNLABELLED: Counteracting bone loss is required for future space exploration. We evaluated the ability of treadmill exercise in a LBNP chamber to counteract bone loss in a 30-day bed rest study. Eight pairs of identical twins were randomly assigned to sedentary control or exercise groups. Exercise within LBNP decreased the bone resorption caused by bed rest and may provide a countermeasure for spaceflight. INTRODUCTION: Bone loss is one of the greatest physiological challenges for extended-duration space missions. The ability of exercise to counteract weightlessness-induced bone loss has been studied extensively, but to date, it has proven ineffective. We evaluated the effectiveness of a combination of two countermeasures-treadmill exercise while inside a lower body negative pressure (LBNP) chamber-on bone loss during a 30-day bed rest study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eight pairs of identical twins were randomized into sedentary (SED) or exercise/LBNP (EX/LBNP) groups. Blood and urine samples were collected before, several times during, and after the 30-day bed rest period. These samples were analyzed for markers of bone and calcium metabolism. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine statistical significance. Because identical twins were used, both time and group were treated as repeated variables. RESULTS: Markers of bone resorption were increased during bed rest in samples from sedentary subjects, including the collagen cross-links and serum and urinary calcium concentrations. For N-telopeptide and deoxypyridinoline, there were significant (p < 0.05) interactions between group (SED versus EX/LBNP) and phase of the study (sample collection point). Pyridinium cross-links were increased above pre-bed rest levels in both groups, but the EX/LBNP group had a smaller increase than the SED group. Markers of bone formation were unchanged by bed rest in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that this weight-bearing exercise combined with LBNP ameliorates some of the negative effects of simulated weightlessness on bone metabolism. This protocol may pave the way to counteracting bone loss during spaceflight and may provide valuable information about normal and abnormal bone physiology here on Earth.

Nutritional status changes in humans during a 14-day saturation dive: the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations V project.

Ground-based analogs of spaceflight are an important means of studying physiologic and nutritional changes associated with space travel, and the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations V (NEEMO) is such an analog. To determine whether saturation diving has nutrition-related effects similar to those of spaceflight, we conducted a clinical nutritional assessment of the NEEMO crew (4 men, 2 women) before, during, and after their 14-d saturation dive. Blood and urine samples were collected before, during, and after the dive. The foods consumed by the crew were typical of the spaceflight food system. A number of physiologic changes were observed, during and after the dive, that are also commonly observed during spaceflight. Hemoglobin and hematocrit were lower (P < 0.05) after the dive. Transferrin receptors were significantly lower immediately after the dive. Serum ferritin increased significantly during the dive. There was also evidence indicating that oxidative damage and stress increased during the dive. Glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase decreased during and after the dive (P < 0.05). Decreased leptin during the dive (P < 0.05) may have been related to the increased stress. Subjects had decreased energy intake and weight loss during the dive, similar to what is observed during spaceflight. Together, these similarities to spaceflight provide a model to use in further defining the physiologic effects of spaceflight and investigating potential countermeasures.