ArticleJCI insight2016
Decreases in thymopoiesis of astronauts returning from space flight.
Article in JCI insight, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of isolated, confined and extreme environments on parameters of the immune system - a systematic review.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Pooled it
- ESA VIVALDI Dry Immersion Microgravity Simulations Induce Increases in Immune Biomarkers Associated With Physical and Psychological Stress, and Sex-Specific Factors.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2025Trial
- Infant cortisol stress-response is associated with thymic function and vaccine response.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2019Trial
- Long-term major histocompatibility complex class I suppression in astronauts and clinical implications.Communications biology · 2026Review
- The case for space as a model of accelerated aging.Nature aging · 2026Review
- Astroimmunology: the effects of spaceflight and its associated stressors on the immune system.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2026Review
- Spaceflight exposome/microgravity effects on the psychoimmunoneuroendocrine system.NPJ microgravity · 2025Review
- Chronic stress-mediated dysregulations in inflammatory, immune and oxidative circuitry impairs the therapeutic response of methotrexate in experimental autoimmune disease models.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Article
- Microgravity impairs endocrine signaling and reproductive health of women. A narrative review.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Dermatologic Considerations for Spaceflight and Space Exploration.JID innovations : skin science from molecules to population health · 2024Article
- Spaceflight alters host-gut microbiota interactions.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2024Article
- eHealth mindfulness-based music therapy for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: A pilot randomized controlled trial protocol.Contemporary clinical trials · 2024Article
- Collection of biospecimens from the inspiration4 mission establishes the standards for the space omics and medical atlas (SOMA).Nature communications · 2024Article
- Radiation-induced DNA double-strand breaks in cortisol exposed fibroblasts as quantified with the novel foci-integrated damage complexity score (FIDCS).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Primary and secondary defects of the thymus.Immunological reviews · 2024Review
- Review
- Long-term space missions' effects on the human organism: what we do know and what requires further research.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Review
- Next generation of astronauts or ESA astronaut 2.0 concept and spotlight on immunity.NPJ microgravity · 2023Review
- The Effects of Combined Exposure to Simulated Microgravity, Ionizing Radiation, and Cortisol on theCells · 2023Article
- Chronic Hypergravity Induces a Modification of Histone H3 Lysine 27 Trimethylation at TCRβ Locus in Murine Thymocytes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Following the advent of molecular assays that measure T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) present in recent thymic emigrants, it has been conclusively shown that thymopoiesis persists in most adults, but that functional output decreases with age, influencing the maintenance of a diverse and functional T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire. Space flight has been shown to result in a variety of phenotypic and functional changes in human T cells and in the reactivation of latent viruses. While space flight has been shown to influence thymic architecture in rodents, thymopoiesis has not previously been assessed in astronauts. Here, we assessed thymopoiesis longitudinally over a 1-year period prior to and after long-term space flight (median duration, 184 days) in 16 astronauts. While preflight assessments of thymopoiesis remained quite stable in individual astronauts, we detected significant suppression of thymopoiesis in all subjects upon return from space flight. We also found significant increases in urine and plasma levels of endogenous glucocorticoids coincident with the suppression of thymopoiesis. The glucocorticoid induction and thymopoiesis suppression were transient, and they normalized shortly after return to Earth. This is the first report to our knowledge to prospectively demonstrate a significant change in thymopoiesis in healthy individuals in association with a defined physiologic emotional and physical stress event. These results suggest that suppression of thymopoiesis has the potential to influence the maintenance of the TCR repertoire during extended space travel. Further studies of thymopoiesis and endogenous glucocorticoids in other stress states, including illness, are warranted.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.