Human osteogenic differentiation in Space: proteomic and epigenetic clues to better understand osteoporosis.

In the frame of the VITA mission of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), we addressed the problem of Space osteoporosis by using human blood-derived stem cells (BDSCs) as a suitable osteogenic differentiation model. In particular, we investigated proteomic and epigenetic changes in BDSCs during osteoblastic differentiation induced by rapamycin under microgravity conditions. A decrease in the expression of 4 embryonic markers (Sox2, Oct3/4, Nanog and E-cadherin) was found to occur to a larger extent on board the ISS than on Earth, along with an earlier activation of the differentiation process towards the osteogenic lineage.