Experimental Physiology最新文献

{"title":"Mechanical pressure on endothelial cells mediates remote ischaemic preconditioning-induced neuroprotection via miR-126.","authors":"Xiaojie Wang, Lei Yan, Hongwei Zhu, Yifan Li, Qi Liu, Wei Li, Kerui Gong, Zhijun Zhao, Chunyang Zhang, Gang Fu, Guo Shao, Xunming Ji","doi":"10.1113/EP093541","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP093541","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Remote ischaemic preconditioning (RIPC) uses brief limb ischaemia to protect distant organs, but the mechanism of travel of the protective signal remains unclear. This study investigated whether endothelial cells (ECs) contribute to RIPC-induced neuroprotection and the underlying mechanisms. Ten healthy volunteers (5 men, 5 women) underwent RIPC. Blood velocity was measured by Doppler ultrasound, and vascular wall pressure (VWP) was computed from 3D fluid-structure interaction models based on magnetic resonance imaging data. Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) were exposed to cyclic higher pressure (CHP) for five cycles. miR-126 expression and promoter DNA methylation were assessed by real-time PCR and bisulfite sequencing. DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) and global methylation levels were measured. SH-SY5Y neurons were incubated with exosomes from HMEC-1 culture medium and then subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R). Neuronal viability and apoptosis were evaluated by MTS assay and flow cytometry, and damage by spectrin and cleaved caspase-3 levels. Dicrotic waves were induced in 9 of the 10 participants following RIPC treatment. VWP transiently increased following RIPC. CHP reduced the expression and activity of DNMTs and induced the hypomethylation of the miR-126 promoter sequence in HMEC-1 cells, leading to an increase in miR-126 levels. Exosomes from CHP-treated HMEC-1 cells decreased SH-SY5Y cell injury under OGD/R. RIPC transiently increased VWP in healthy volunteers. The results of this study indicate that CHP treatment may induce the production of neuroprotective molecules by ECs, which may protect against ischaemia/hypoxia-induced neuronal cell injury in vitro, possibly through a CHP-induced effect involving miR-126.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13547709/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148900465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cerebral blood flow in conscious rats and implications for therapeutic interventions.","authors":"Tonja W Emans, Courtney R Brighouse, Jack T Sloan, Fiona D McBryde","doi":"10.1113/EP093381","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP093381","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cerebral blood flow (CBF) often becomes compromised in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases, increasing the risk of neurodegenerative disease and vascular dementia. There is an urgent need for treatments to address cardiovascular risk without compromising brain perfusion, yet the impact of many existing treatments on CBF are not well understood. An exclusive focus on arterial blood pressure (BP) control against a background of cerebral vascular damage may miss an opportunity to restore cerebral haemodynamic regulation and mitigate risk to cognitive function. This Symposium Review focuses on the possibility and promise of assessing and optimising CBF during treatment for cardiovascular diseases. This is especially relevant given the new interest in pathways that protect brain health via cerebrospinal fluid exchange, such as the glymphatic system. Insights into the fundamental mechanisms connecting vascular motility and brain health can be gleaned from conscious, high-fidelity measurements of CBF. We believe that CBF monitoring is crucial in the development of novel compounds, or re-evaluation of current drugs.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13535537/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148873076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Age-related loss of hysteresis in the spontaneous vascular sympathetic baroreflex is associated with altered neural rather than mechanical control.","authors":"Guto Wyn Hughes, Denis J Wakeham, Christopher J A Pugh, Zoe H Adams, Rachel N Lord, Jonathan P Moore","doi":"10.1113/EP094070","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP094070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The vascular sympathetic baroreflex is critical for stabilising blood pressure. A notable feature of this reflex is hysteresis, a directional asymmetry in responsiveness during rising versus falling pressure that is evident in young adults but attenuated in older age. Whether age-related reduction reflects altered mechanical transduction at baroreceptors or changes in neural processing remains unclear. We compared the mechanical and neural components of the sympathetic baroreflex, with specific focus on hysteresis, in healthy young (21-30 years old, n = 20) and middle-aged (50-63 years, n = 14) males. Continuous recordings of arterial pressure (photoplethysmography), muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA; microneurography) and common carotid artery diameter (ultrasound) were obtained during 6 min of supine rest. Spontaneous baroreflex gain was quantified for mechanical (diastolic pressure into carotid diameter) and neural (carotid diameter into MSNA) components, and overall (diastolic pressure into MSNA), with rising and falling pressure sequences analysed separately. Young men exhibited clear hysteresis in the overall baroreflex loop, whereas this was absent in middle-aged men. Mechanical hysteresis was not observed in either age group. In contrast, young men displayed pronounced neural hysteresis (Falling: -0.302 ± 0.157 vs. Rising: -0.128 ± 0.88% bursts µm^-1, P < 0.001; g = 1.37), whereas neural hysteresis was absent in middle-aged men (Falling: -0.345 ± 0.400 vs. Rising: -0.396 ± 0.368% burst µm^-1, P = 0.348, g = 0.13). These findings suggest that age-related loss of spontaneous sympathetic baroreflex hysteresis is more apparent within the neural rather than the mechanical component.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13535538/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148873087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Blood flow restriction exercise during microgravity exposure in parabolic flight","authors":"Yannick Laflamme,&nbsp;Etienne Chassé,&nbsp;Luke Hughes","doi":"10.1113/EP092767","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP092767","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This case report evaluates whether it is possible to perform blood flow restriction (BFR) exercise during exposure to microgravity. The objectives were three-fold: (1) to determine if a personalised tourniquet system (PTS) hardware technology performs nominally and enables BFR exercise in microgravity; (2) to determine if BFR augments the exercise stimulus in microgravity in a similar manner to its application on Earth; and (3) to evaluate tolerance and acceptability of performing BFR exercise and operating the PTS hardware in microgravity. Two participants performed resistance squat and deadlift exercises on a flywheel device (inertia of 0.01 kg m²) with and without BFR during microgravity in parabolic flight onboard the National Research Council's Falcon 20 aircraft. Heart rate, perceived exertion and discomfort, and the participants’ tolerance and acceptability of performing BFR exercise in microgravity compared to exercise without BFR were measured. Performance of the PTS hardware technology was also evaluated. This case report demonstrates, for the first time, that it is possible to perform BFR exercise in microgravity in a manner that may augment the physiological stress of exercise in an acceptable and tolerable fashion. Importantly, the BFR hardware technology required to perform BFR exercise in an accurate, safe and effective manner performs nominally in microgravity. Future research should aim to conduct investigations during longer exposures to microgravity (i.e. during 3- to 6-month missions on the International Space Station), providing a more comprehensive evaluation of the physiological stimulus provided and the tolerance and acceptability when performing BFR exercise in the space environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":"111 9","pages":"3928-3935"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13394582/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144788625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoding the space integrome: Personalized countermeasures for a mission to Mars","authors":"Damian M. Bailey","doi":"10.1113/EP092629","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP092629","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;On 14 January 2004, the USA set forth a ‘Vision for Space Exploration’, outlining ambitious plans to establish human research stations and habitats with rotating crew on the Moon and, eventually, Mars. With the decommissioning of the International Space Station (ISS) planned for ∼2030, the Artemis programme is now set to make this dream a reality, with a crewed mission to Mars extending beyond 1000 days, scheduled as early as the late 2040s. This exciting era in deep space exploration will face unique challenges as humankind looks to transform from a terrestrial to extraterrestrial species, placing unprecedented demands on an astronaut's health, performance and medical needs.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Indeed, there is no environment more unique or challenging to humans than outer space. Astronauts will have to face the full force of the space ‘exposome’, an emergent concept originally founded in toxicology (Bliss, &lt;span&gt;1939&lt;/span&gt;), which reflects the cumulative sum of all environmental hazards encountered during spaceflight: cosmic radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, hostile/closed environments and altered gravity fields (Figure 1a; Patel et al., &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). According to NASA's Human Research Program (NASA, &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;), these hazards are associated with &gt;30 human health risks, with several classified as high priority or ‘red’ rated owing to their likelihood and consequence, across the temporal continuum of acute in-mission to those emerging in later life (Romero &amp; Francisco, &lt;span&gt;2020&lt;/span&gt;). Addressing these hazards, defining risks and providing solutions remains a top priority for space agencies and commercial partners alike, occupying the best scientific minds of the 21st century.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this issue of &lt;i&gt;Experimental Physiology&lt;/i&gt;, Fernandez-Gonzalo et al. (&lt;span&gt;2026&lt;/span&gt;) focus on the application of one such solution, exercise countermeasures (CMs), which are targeted interventions designed to mitigate risk. Spaceflight CMs have enjoyed a rich history dating back to the early 1950s, prior to formal implementation of the first exercise CMs for the US Gemini program (Scott et al., &lt;span&gt;2019&lt;/span&gt;). In their elegant review, the authors highlight the need to address critical knowledge gaps that have traditionally been ignored by the extant literature that, if addressed, could improve CM efficacy and corresponding risk mitigation (Fernandez-Gonzalo et al., &lt;span&gt;2026&lt;/span&gt;). These include focused consideration of exercise CMs that: (1) optimize the systemic (i.e. multi-organ) responses, emphasizing the need for more multidisciplinary research; (2) are tailored and reflect individualized training plans to enhance enjoyment and compliance; (3) address time-dependent load variabilities to better determine the ‘minimal effective dose’ required to preserve physiological function in a pragmatic manner; (4) take into account altered nutrition (i.e. hypocaloric diets); and (5) are based on sound experimental design","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":"111 9","pages":"3902-3905"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13394796/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143466610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Space physiology: Challenges and solutions for a journey to Mars","authors":"Damian M. Bailey","doi":"10.1113/EP093375","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP093375","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The central biomedical challenge for human exploration is not simply how far spacecraft can travel but whether human physiology can adapt safely to prolonged life beyond Earth. Spaceflight provides a unique testbed for defining the limits of physiological adaptation and resilience. The human body, adapted to Earth's gravitational environment, must respond simultaneously to microgravity or partial gravity, ionising radiation, altered atmospheric composition, circadian disruption and confinement. Determining when these responses progress from adaptation to deconditioning, disease and impaired operational performance is essential for crew health and mission success. The resulting insights also inform ageing, physical inactivity, critical illness, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular disease, and healthcare delivery in remote or resource-limited environments.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is a particularly timely period for space physiology. On 6 April 2026, Artemis II conducted the first crewed lunar flyby in &gt;50 years, with subsequent Artemis missions intended to support sustained human activity on and around the Moon and prepare for future missions to Mars (National Aeronautics &amp; Space Administration, &lt;span&gt;2026&lt;/span&gt;). Beyond low Earth orbit, longer mission durations, delayed communications, the absence of rapid evacuation, and sustained exposure to interacting environmental stressors fundamentally alter the biomedical context. Crew members will consequently require greater autonomy in monitoring and managing their health.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Together, these environmental and operational hazards comprise the space exposome, i.e., the cumulative mission exposures and their interactions with individual susceptibility. The space integrome describes the corresponding integrated, multiscale biological response across genes, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, physiological systems and behaviour, which collectively determines adaptation, resilience or maladaptation (Bailey, &lt;span&gt;2026&lt;/span&gt;; Bailey et al., &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;). Deeper longitudinal phenotyping of the exposome–integrome interaction is therefore needed to determine how combined stressors modify individual risk and to guide personalised countermeasure selection. Although &gt;30 health risks have been associated with exploration-class missions, the additive, antagonistic and non-linear effects of combined exposures remain poorly characterised (Bailey, &lt;span&gt;2026&lt;/span&gt;; Bailey et al., &lt;span&gt;2025&lt;/span&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;These uncertainties create a clear role for physiologists in translating mechanistic insight into practical intervention. Exercise, artificial gravity, nutrition, pharmacology, environmental control and digital health monitoring must be evaluated both individually and as coordinated, mission-specific countermeasure packages tailored to the astronaut and operational context. Building this capability will require sustained investment in doctoral training, fellowships and interdisciplinary career pathways spannin","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":"111 9","pages":"3863-3869"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13520056/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148826193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Jumping on the moon as a potential exercise countermeasure.","authors":"Patrick Swain, Filipa Santos, Luke Hughes, Dan Gordon, Nick Caplan","doi":"10.1113/EP092155","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP092155","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Moon's gravitational field strength (17% Earth's gravity) may facilitate the use of bodyweight jumping as an exercise countermeasure against musculoskeletal and cardiovascular deconditioning in reduced gravity settings. The present study characterised the acute physiological and kinetic responses to bodyweight jumping in simulated Lunar gravity. Nineteen healthy adults (age: 25 ± 7 years, weight: 73 ± 11 kg; height: 1.81 ± 0.05 m, <math> <msub><mover><mi>V</mi> <mo>̇</mo></mover> <mrow><msub><mi>O</mi> <mn>2</mn></msub> <mi>max</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> : 50 ± 11 mL kg^-1 min^-1) performed an incremental jumping test in simulated Lunar gravity (9.5° head-up tilt suspension) comprising 4-min stages of jumping with 1-min rests, beginning at 30 cm and increasing 5 cm per stage up to 70 cm. A graded exercise test (GXT) to volitional exhaustion was subsequently performed using upright cycle ergometry. Cardiorespiratory outcomes ( <math> <msub><mover><mi>V</mi> <mo>̇</mo></mover> <msub><mi>O</mi> <mn>2</mn></msub> </msub> </math> , <math> <msub><mover><mi>V</mi> <mo>̇</mo></mover> <mrow><mi>C</mi> <msub><mi>O</mi> <mn>2</mn></msub> </mrow> </msub> </math> , <math> <msub><mover><mi>V</mi> <mo>̇</mo></mover> <mi>E</mi></msub> </math> , breathing frequency, respiratory exchange ratio and heart rate (HR)) and peak vertical ground reaction forces (vGRF) increased linearly (R² = 0.77-0.97) and blood lactate concentrations increased exponentially with jump height (R² = 0.98). Participants achieved HRs of 158 ± 17 beats min^-1 (88 ± 9% HR_max), metabolic rates of 35 ± 6 mL kg^-1 min^-1 (71 ± 9% <math> <msub><mover><mi>V</mi> <mo>̇</mo></mover> <mrow><msub><mi>O</mi> <mn>2</mn></msub> <mi>max</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> ), blood lactate concentrations of 5.8 ± 1.7 mmol L^-1 and peak vGRFs of 119 ± 17% bodyweight. Jumping at ∼20% bodyweight requires no equipment, allows for submaximal cardiovascular exercise intensities with and without blood lactate accumulation, and may have value as an exercise countermeasure in Lunar/Martian surface habitats.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":"4073-4088"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13394199/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143973545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tackling aging and chronic disease: How space exploration and the 'chameleon effect' of pharmaceuticals can lead the way.","authors":"Carina Kern, Tina Woods, Keith Siew","doi":"10.1113/EP092652","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP092652","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A common misconception surrounding space exploration is that humanity's pursuit of interplanetary travel, such as missions to Mars, is an escape from Earth. In reality, this endeavour offers an invaluable opportunity to address critical biomedical challenges here at home. The extreme conditions of space, including microgravity, cosmic radiation and prolonged isolation, create a natural laboratory for studying human biology under stress, allowing us to explore the boundaries of human resilience. These exposures yield key insights into the biology of aging, the accelerated decline of physiological function and the early onset of chronic diseases. Among the organs most susceptible to environmental stress is the kidney, which is at high risk of failure during long-duration spaceflight. Its sensitivity makes it an ideal model for understanding how stress accelerates degeneration, both in space and on Earth. By studying kidney function alongside broader cellular processes, we can illuminate how stress drives aging and chronic disease. This is particularly exemplified by the process of cellular necrosis (unprogrammed cell death), which represents a key central node as recently demonstrated. Necrosis acts upstream of processes like cellular senescence and tissue degeneration, and is the mechanism through which multiple environmental factors erode resilience and drive the progression of chronic diseases like kidney disease. Following this exploration of how stress accelerates biological decline, we examine strategies that may protect against such damage, preventing disease and preserving physiological resilience. Pharmaceuticals, with their ability to modulate physiology transiently, are especially powerful in dynamic, real-world environments where stressors continually change. This 'chameleon effect' of pharmaceuticals offers the potential to uncouple biological trade-offs and enhance adaptive capacity to stress. Understanding these processes in the space environment provides an unprecedented opportunity, difficult to reproduce on Earth, to identify links between exposure and develop targeted interventions to enhance health and resilience on Earth.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":"4064-4072"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13487027/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148790123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"To Mars through LEO: How commercial space travel will change exploration-enabling research","authors":"Christopher Puhl,&nbsp;Michail Magkos","doi":"10.1113/EP092422","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP092422","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;p&gt;The Crew dragon capsule stacked atop the Falcon 9 disappeared above the clouds carrying the Axiom-3 crew (Box 1). It was mid-January 2024, and the mission that would carry the first European project astronaut aboard a commercial spaceflight had just commenced operations. Although the previous 8 months had been a flurry of activity preparing the mission on a swift and compressed timeline, the sonic boom that echoed across Merritt Island seemed to be an audible demarcation of a new time. Commercial human spaceflight on a larger scale had arrived; the pace was beginning to increase, and space was nearer than ever. The future? More flights, more platforms, more options and more throughput. The European Space Agency had taken the first steps into this new and evolving Low Earth Orbit (LEO) landscape. National agencies, industry and the science community seek to use these new opportunities as a springboard with eyes cast further into the distance: Moon, Mars, and Deep Space.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The International Space Station (ISS) currently sits as the locus for space-based life sciences research in LEO, only recently being joined by the Tiangong Space Station. The ISS has been continuously manned for more than two decades, and there have been over 4000 studies carried out on board it by research groups from all over the world. Here we have observed many of the deleterious effects of spaceflight on the human body: fluid shifts, headaches, disorientation, cognitive disturbances, muscle and bone loss, space-associated neurocular syndrome (SANS), as well as a host of other effects (Cowings et al., &lt;span&gt;2018&lt;/span&gt;; Demontis et al., &lt;span&gt;2017&lt;/span&gt;; Kesserwani, &lt;span&gt;2021&lt;/span&gt;; Yin et al., &lt;span&gt;2023&lt;/span&gt;). These problems arise as a response to the combined stressors of spaceflight – microgravity, radiation, isolation and confinement. Although much work has been done, there remains a lack of precise understanding of the pathways and molecules mediating these effects, not to mention effective countermeasures to keep crew safe during the round trip to Mars (Box 2). Continued study, increasing the number of subjects, and testing countermeasures remain critical objectives in LEO before taking the trip to deep space, and continued access to crewed platforms in LEO are a necessary component.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Short-duration missions to LEO destinations (whether ISS or commercial LEO destinations (CLDs)) offer a unique opportunity to observe rapid physiological and psychological adaptations to microgravity and identify the threshold durations required for significant, potentially permanent changes to occur. A non-exhaustive list of study topics is available in Table 1. By exploring these, or similar, research questions, short-duration space missions can provide valuable insights to inform strategies for long-term mission planning, astronaut training, spacecraft and habitat design, and development of effective countermeasures to maintain astronaut health and performance during f","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":"111 9","pages":"3884-3889"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13394653/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144092786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Microvascular endothelial function is blunted in postmenopausal females with frequent hot flushes.","authors":"William Stokes, Chowdhury Tasnova Tahsin, Miguel F Anselmo, Stephany Nathe, Emma J Lee, Soliana Teshome, Marnie L Vanden Noven, Anne Blaes, Benjamin W Langworthy, Manda L Keller-Ross","doi":"10.1113/EP093733","DOIUrl":"10.1113/EP093733","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hot flushes of menopause are associated with elevated blood pressure (BP) and diminished macrovascular endothelial function, an initiating factor in the onset of atherosclerosis. Whether microvascular endothelial function is impaired in females with hot flushes, however, remains unknown. We hypothesised that postmenopausal females with hot flushes would have reduced microvascular endothelial function and elevated BP in comparison to age-matched females without hot flushes. Participants were healthy postmenopausal females, aged 45-70 years; participants experiencing at least three hot flushes per day were placed in the hot flush (HF) group (n = 16), whereas participants with no history of hot flushes were placed in the non-HF group (n = 18). Heart rate (ECG) and BP (finger plethysmography) were measured during a 10 min rest period, and endothelial function was measured with pulse amplitude tonometry (EndoPAT 2000), quantified by the reactive hyperaemia index (RHI) and the natural logarithm of the RHI (LnRHI). Groups were similar in age, age at menopause and body mass index, in addition to systolic BP, diastolic BP and heart rate between groups (P > 0.05). The RHI was lower in the HF group (1.87 ± 0.47 a.u.) compared with the non-HF group (2.31 ± 0.67 a.u., P = 0.047), and the difference between LnRHI in the HF group (0.63 ± 0.21 a.u.) and the non-HF group was nearly significant (0.80 ± 0.27 a.u., P = 0.052). New findings from this study demonstrate a lower microvascular endothelial function in females with hot flushes in comparison to females without hot flushes, although BP and heart rate were not different between the groups. The reduced microvascular endothelial function demonstrated in females with hot flushes is likely to contribute to greater cardiovascular disease development.</p>","PeriodicalId":12092,"journal":{"name":"Experimental Physiology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13534791/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148873074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}