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Effects of Space Flight on Inflammasome Activation in the Brain of Mice (Brain, Western Blot and ECLIA)

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

Space exploration exposes astronauts to stressors that alter the immune response, rendering them vulnerable to infections and diseases. In this study, we aimed to determine the levels of inflammasome activation in the brains of mice that were housed in the International Space Station (ISS) for 37 days. C57BL/6 mice were launched to the ISS as part of NASA’s Rodent Research 1 Mission on SpaceX-4 CRS-4 Dragon cargo spacecraft from September 21st, 2014, to October 25th, 2014. Dissected mouse brains from that mission were analyzed by immunoblotting of inflammasome signaling proteins and Electrochemiluminescence Immunoassay (ECLIA) for inflammatory cytokine levels. Our data indicate decreased inflammasome activation in the brains of mice that were housed in the ISS for 37 days when compared to the brains of mice that were maintained on the ground, and in mice corresponding to the baseline group that were sacrificed at the time of launching of SpaceX-4. Moreover, we did not detect any significant changes in the expression levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-2, IFN-gamma, IL-5, IL-6, IL-12p70 and IL-10 between the ground control and the flight groups. Together, these studies suggest that spaceflight results in a decrease in the levels of innate immune signaling molecules that govern inflammasome signaling in the brain of mice. This dataset derives results from the ECLIA and Western Blot assays using brain tissue.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025
Publisher Open Science Data Repository
Maintainer
Identifier 10.26030/y2bh-8d88
Data Last Modified 2025-08-21
Category Biological and Physical Sciences
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id a8a2da7c-5355-4414-bc9e-681793f07ba1
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://osdr.nasa.gov/bio/repo/data/missions/SpaceX-4
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash e67970bf8b84ec53bae72d9b47a6cc9aec09092dfe51ea9c59bdfd24ed0df44f
Source Schema Version 1.1

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