D.N. Kashirina1, L.H. Pastushkova2, A.G. Goncharova3, I.N. Goncharov4, I.M. Larina5

1–5 Institute of Biomedical Problems of RAS (Moscow, Russia)

1 daryakudryavtseva@mail.ru, 2 lpastushkova@mail.ru, 3 goncharova.anna@gmail.com,
4 igorgoncharov@gmail.com, 5 irina.larina@gmail.com

The search for proteomic markers of the risks of developing myocardial fibrosis under the influence of real and simulated factors of space flight (SF) is relevant for preserving professional longevity and maintaining a high level of health of cosmonauts and workers in other hazardous professions. The purpose of the work was to study the influence of factors in ground-based experiments with the participation of healthy volunteers (rotation in a short-radius centrifuge (SRC), staying in an anti-orthostatic position during prolonged head-down bed rest - 6° for 21 days (HDBR) and cosmonauts in six-month space flights (SF), on the level of ST2 - a proteomic marker of myocardial overextension and the risk of developing cardiac fibrosis. The hypothesis about the presence of a cumulative effect of overextension of the hollow muscular organ heart under the influence of gravitational forces is also being tested. The level of the cardiac marker ST2 was assessed with the participation of 6 healthy volunteers in a spin experiment on a short-radius centrifuge, 6 test participants in long-term hypokinesia - 6° for 21 days and 9 cosmonauts who performed space flights lasting 180-269 days. The sST2 level was assessed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

The method was found to be highly sensitive in determining ST2 levels in plasma samples from healthy volunteers, participants in ground-based model studies, and cosmonauts after long-term space flights. Individual variability of both the basal ST2 level and the degree of its stimulation by experimental influences was revealed. The ST2 level changes significantly at different periods of HDBR. The dynamics of the ST2 level in 21 days of HDBR coincides with data on the timing of changes in the volume of the heart chambers, a decrease in plasma volume and a decrease in the mass of the left ventricular myocardium, recorded by other researchers. Repeated rotation on the central circulation zone causes cumulative effects of overstretching of the myocardium as a hollow elastic organ, displaced along the vector of gravitational influences. In cosmonauts, an increase in ST2 levels in the first day after a flight is associated with a more pronounced overstretch of the myocardium, adapted to the conditions of long-term life in microgravity, under the influence of overloads during the landing stage.

The determination of ST2 is important for identifying individuals with individual high or, on the contrary, low adaptive potential to the effects of overload, as well as for objectifying the characteristics of the biomechanical load on cardiomyocytes under the influence of single and multiple rotations on the central nervous system and the formation of individual protocols for medical selection and assessment of rotation modes of the central nervous system. Periodic measurement of ST2 in cosmonauts is important for monitoring and assessing myocardial stability in relation to overload and the risk of developing cardiac fibrosis in the long-term post-flight period.

Kashirina D.N., Pastushkova L.H., Goncharova A.G., Goncharov I.N., Larina I.M. Markers of long-term risks of developing myocardial changes under the influence of space flight and its simulated effects on Earth: search for markers by proteomic methods. Technologies of Living Systems. 2024. V. 21. № 2. Р. 5-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18127/j20700997-202402-01 (In Russian).

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