In future space missions, all surgical emergencies, wounds, injuries, burns, etc., will be handled on spacecraft or bases because the evacuation time to Earth would be too long. This is why ASA is researching wound treatment in space.
Researchers Dr. Monica Monici and Dr. Francesca Cialdai from the ASAcampus Joint Laboratory have participated in the CORM experiment (2017), the XENOGRISS experiment (2019), and the ’SUTURE in SPACE’ experiment, which took place on the International Space Station (ISS) during the Minerva mission with Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency.
EThe experiment, selected by the European Space Agency in the ESA-ILSRA2014 call and with the support of the Italian Space Agency (C-ASI N. 2018-14-U.0-Suture in Space), aims to study the process of surgical wound healing in space. In future interplanetary space missions, any surgical emergencies, injuries, burns, and traumas will have to be managed aboard space vehicles or bases, because medical evacuation times to Earth would be too long. The wound healing process is crucial for the survival of the organism, so it is necessary to study it in the typical conditions of the space environment, that is, in microgravity.
Wound healing in space
The study of the wound healing process in microgravity conditions will help better understand the mechanisms of tissue repair and regeneration and identify therapeutic strategies for wound management both in space and on Earth. During the studies for the realization of the experiment, an ex-vivo biological tissue culture technique was developed that allows tissue survival for a few weeks and could have various applications in the biomedical field.
Read more about the research of wound treatment in space.
* ex-vivo betyder det, der finder sted uden for en organisme. I videnskaben refererer ex vivo til eksperimenter eller målinger udført i eller på væv fra en organisme i et eksternt miljø med minimal ændring af naturlige forhold