Space flight and the immune system

• Published in: Vaccine Vol. 11; no. 5; pp. 496 - 503
• Main Author: Cogoli, A.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Legacy CDMS Elsevier Ltd 1993; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Applied physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cells, Cultured; Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology; Humans; immune system; Immune System - immunology; Immune Tolerance; Immunoglobulins - blood; Leukocyte Count; Life Sciences (General); Lymphocyte Activation; Lymphocytes - physiology; Medical sciences; Muramidase - blood; Space Flight; stress; Transports. Aerospace. Diving. Altitude; United States; USSR; United States; USSR; immune system; stress; Space flight; Nasa Discipline Number 00-00; United States; Non-Nasa Center; Short Duration; Unmanned; Long Duration; Skylab Project; Leukocyte Count; Human; Lymphocyte Activation; Cells, Cultured; Immune Tolerance; Salyut Project; Muramidase/blood; Immune System/immunology; Space Flight; Immunoglobulins/blood; Cosmos Project; Flight Experiment; Nasa Program Flight; Sts Shuttle Project; Apollo Project; Animals; Ussr; Nasa Discipline Regulatory Physiology; Manned; Lymphocytes/physiology; Animal; Environmental factor; Cellular immunity; Weightlessness; Review; Stress; Spationaute; NASA Discipline Number 00-00; NASA Program Flight; NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology; Non-NASA Center
• ISSN: 0264-410X; 1873-2518
• DOI: 10.1016/0264-410X(93)90217-L

Depression of lymphocyte response to mitogens in cosmonauts after space flight was reported for the first time in the early 1970s by Soviet immunologists. Today we know that depression of lymphocyte function affects at least 50% of space crew members. Investigations on the ground on subjects undergoing physical and psychological stress indicate that stress is a major factor in immune depression of astronauts. This is despite the fact that weightlessness per se has a strong inhibitory effect on lymphocyte activation in vitro. Although the changes observed never harmed the health of astronauts, immunological changes must be seriously investigated and understood in view of long-duration flights on space stations in an Earth orbit, to other planets such as Mars and to the Moon.