Iron metabolism regulation in females and males exposed to simulated microgravity: results from the randomized trial Artificial Gravity Bed Rest-European Space Agency (AGBRESA).

Background: Iron metabolism imbalance could contribute to physical deconditioning experienced by astronauts due to its essential role in energy metabolism, cellular respiration, and oxygen transport.

Objectives: In this clinical exploratory study, we wanted to determine whether artificial gravity (AG) training modulated iron metabolism, RBC indices, and body lean mass in healthy male and female participants exposed to head-down tilt (HDT) bed rest, the reference ground-based model of microgravity.

Methods: We recruited 8 healthy female and 16 healthy male participants who were all exposed to HDT bed rest for 60 d. In addition, they were assigned to 3 experimental groups (n = 8/each): controls, continuous AG training in a short-arm centrifuge (1 × 30 min/d), and intermittent AG training (6 × 5 min/d).

Results: The iron metabolism responses to simulated microgravity of the AG training groups did not differ significantly from the responses of controls. Independently from AG, we found that both serum iron concentrations (+31.3%, P = 0.027) and transferrin saturation levels (+28.4%, P = 0.009) increased in males after 6 d of HDT bed rest, as well as serum hepcidin concentrations (+36.9%, P = 0.005). The increase of transferrin saturation levels persisted after 57 d of HDT bed rest (+13.5%, P = 0.026), suggesting that long-term exposure to microgravity sustainably increases serum iron availability in males, and consequently the risk of iron excess or misdistribution. In females, 6 and 57 d of HDT bed rest did not significantly change serum iron, transferrin saturation, or hepcidin levels.

Conclusions: The data from this exploratory study suggest that 1) AG training does not influence the iron metabolism responses to microgravity; and 2) iron metabolism parameters, especially iron availability for cells, are significantly increased in males, but not in females, exposed to long-term simulated microgravity. Because of the small sample size of females, we nevertheless must be cautious before concluding that iron metabolism could differently respond to microgravity in females. This trial was registered at https://www.drks.de as DRKS00015677.