Comprehensive Molecular Profiling of Astronaut Twins

The materials and methods are briefly summarized here; expanded materials and methods are included in the supplementary materials. Data were generated across human and microbial cells, including isolations of stool, saliva, skin, urine, blood, plasma, PBMCs, and immune cells that are CD4+, CD8+, and CD19+ enriched and lymphocyte-depleted (LD), from AutoMACS magnetic bead separation and validated by FACS (fig. S1). Molecular techniques included assessments of telomere length, telomerase activity, and chromosome aberration frequencies (qRT-PCR T:A, qRT-PCR TRAP, Telo-FISH, and dGH), WGBS, RNA-seq (polyA, riboRNA, and miRNA), mitochondrial quantification (qPCR and qRT-PCR), shotgun metagenome sequencing of fecal microbiome, targeted proteomics (LC-MS), untargeted proteomics (PECAN, MaxQuant for urine and SWATH-MS for plasma), targeted metabolomics (GC-MS), untargeted metabolomics (LC-MS), mitochondrial respiration (Seahorse XF), oxidative state measures (EPR), TCR and BCR (T cell and B cell receptor repertoire) profiling, 10 cognitive tests (motor praxis, visual object learning, fractal 2-back, abstract matching, line orientation, emotion recognition, matrix reasoning, digit symbol substitution, balloon analog risk, and psychomotor vigilance), vascular and ocular measures by ultrasound and optical coherence tomography, respectively, and a wide range of other biometrics (e.g., nutrition, height, and weight). Finally, a large set of biochemical profiles were measured pre-, in-, and postflight for both subjects: body mass, height, energy intake, vitamin levels (A, B6, B12, C, D, and E and 1-carbon metabolites), minerals (copper, ceruloplasmin, selenium, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and iodine), iron levels (ferritin, transferrin, transferrin receptors, Hgb, Hct, MCV, TIBC, and hepcidin), urine proteins (total, albumin, TTR, RBP, creatinine, metallothionein, 3-MH, nitrogen, and fibrinogen), bone markers (BSAP, PTH, OPG, RANKL, P1NP, sclerostin, and osteocalcin), collagen crosslinks (NTX, CTX, and DPD), oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity (8-OHdG, PGF2α, GPX, SOD, TAC, oxLDL, total lipid peroxides, heme, and glutathione), protein carbonyls (myeloperoxidase, lp-PLA2, neopterin, and beta-2 microglobulin), hormones and immune system markers (cytokines, testosterone, estradiol, DHEA/S, cortisol, IGF1, leptin, thyroid hormones, angiotensin, aldosterone, ANP, PRA, and insulin), and general urine chemistry (Na, K, and Cl ions; uric acid; cholesterol; triglyceride; HDL; LDL; phospholipids; renal stone risk; liver enzymes; hsCRP; NAD/P; and pH). Together, these data span 25 months for the flight subject twin (TW), who was compared with himself, either preflight, inflight, or postflight, and also with his twin control (HR) on Earth using generalized linear models (GLM), DESeq2, and fuzzy c-means clustering for longitudinal trends. All P values were corrected for multiple testing using a FDR of 0.05 or 0.01, and q values are reported in all tables.

Partial Protocol Preview
This section provides a glimpse into the protocol.
The remaining content is hidden due to licensing restrictions, but the full text is available at the following link: Access Free Full Text.

Garrett-Bakelman F.E., Darshi M., Green S.J., Gur R.C., Lin L., Macias B.R., McKenna M.J., Meydan C., Mishra T., Nasrini J., Piening B.D., Rizzardi L.F., Sharma K., Siamwala J.H., Taylor L., Vitaterna M.H., Afkarian M., Afshinnekoo E., Ahadi S., Ambati A., Arya M., Bezdan D., Callahan C.M., Chen S., Choi A.M., Chlipala G.E., Contrepois K., Covington M., Crucian B.E., De Vivo I., Dinges D.F., Ebert D.J., Feinberg J.I., Gandara J.A., George K.A., Goutsias J., Grills G.S., Hargens A.R., Heer M., Hillary R.P., Hoofnagle A.N., Hook V.Y., Jenkinson G., Jiang P., Keshavarzian A., Laurie S.S., Lee-McMullen B., Lumpkins S.B., MacKay M., Maienschein-Cline M.G., Melnick A.M., Moore T.M., Nakahira K., Patel H.H., Pietrzyk R., Rao V., Saito R., Salins D.N., Schilling J.M., Sears D.D., Sheridan C.K., Stenger M.B., Tryggvadottir R., Urban A.E., Vaisar T., Van Espen B., Zhang J., Ziegler M.G., Zwart S.R., Charles J.B., Kundrot C.E., Scott G.B., Bailey S.M., Basner M., Feinberg A.P., Lee S.M., Mason C.E., Emmanuel M.i.g.n.o.t., Rana B.K., Smith S.M., Snyder M.P, & Turek F.W. (2019). The NASA Twins Study: A multidimensional analysis of a year-long human spaceflight. Science (New York, N.Y.), 364(6436), eaau8650.

Publication 2019

8 ohdg Albumin Aldosterone Angiotensin Antioxidant B cell receptor Beta 2 microglobulin Blood Body Bone Bsap Calcium Carbon Cells Ceruloplasmin Cholesterol Chromosome aberration Cognitive tests Collagen Copper Cortisol Creatinine Cytokines Dhea s Digit Emotion Enzymes Estradiol Fecal Ferritin Fibrinogen Fish Gc ms Glutathione Heme Hepcidin Hormones Hscrp Human Igf1 Insulin Iodine Ions Iron Isolations Leptin Lipid peroxides Liver Lp pla2 Lymphocyte Magnesium Metagenome Metallothionein Microbiome Minerals Mirna Mitochondrial Myeloperoxidase Neopterin Nitrogen Ocular Optical coherence tomography Osteocalcin Oxidative stress Oxldl P1np Pecan Pgf2α Phospholipids Phosphorus Plasma Polya Protein Rankl Renal stone Respiration Rna seq Saliva Seahorse Selenium Skin T cell Telomerase Telomere Testosterone Thyroid hormones Transferrin Transferrin receptors Triglyceride Twin Ultrasound Uric acid Urine Vascular Vigilance Vitamin Zinc

Corresponding Organization :

Other organizations : University of Virginia, Cornell University, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Palo Alto University, Stanford University, Wyle (United States), Colorado State University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University, University of California, Davis, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Harvard University, University of Bonn, University of Washington, Rush University Medical Center, MEI Technologies (United States), The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Physical Sciences (United States), National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, MIND Research Institute

Top 5 similar protocols

Protocol cited in 10 other protocols

Variable analysis

independent variables

Twin subject (TW) vs. Twin control (HR)

dependent variables

Telomere length
Telomerase activity
Chromosome aberration frequencies
RNA-seq (polyA, riboRNA, and miRNA)
Mitochondrial quantification
Shotgun metagenome sequencing of fecal microbiome
Targeted proteomics (LC-MS)
Untargeted proteomics (PECAN, MaxQuant for urine and SWATH-MS for plasma)
Targeted metabolomics (GC-MS)
Untargeted metabolomics (LC-MS)
Mitochondrial respiration (Seahorse XF)
Oxidative state measures (EPR)
TCR and BCR (T cell and B cell receptor repertoire) profiling
10 cognitive tests
Vascular and ocular measures by ultrasound and optical coherence tomography
Biochemical profiles (body mass, height, energy intake, vitamin levels, minerals, iron levels, urine proteins, bone markers, collagen crosslinks, oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity, protein carbonyls, hormones and immune system markers, and general urine chemistry)

control variables

Preflight, inflight, and postflight measurements for the flight subject twin (TW)
Comparison between the flight subject twin (TW) and the twin control (HR) on Earth

Annotations

Based on most similar protocols

Etiam vel ipsum. Morbi facilisis vestibulum nisl. Praesent cursus laoreet felis. Integer adipiscing pretium orci. Nulla facilisi. Quisque posuere bibendum purus. Nulla quam mauris, cursus eget, convallis ac, molestie non, enim. Aliquam congue. Quisque sagittis nonummy sapien. Proin molestie sem vitae urna. Maecenas lorem.

As authors may omit details in methods from publication, our AI will look for missing critical information across the 5 most similar protocols.

About PubCompare

Our mission is to provide scientists with the largest repository of trustworthy protocols and intelligent analytical tools, thereby offering them extensive information to design robust protocols aimed at minimizing the risk of failures.

We believe that the most crucial aspect is to grant scientists access to a wide range of reliable sources and new useful tools that surpass human capabilities.

However, we trust in allowing scientists to determine how to construct their own protocols based on this information, as they are the experts in their field.

Ready to get started?

Revolutionizing how scientists
search and build protocols!