ArticleScientific reports2019
Male mice, caged in the International Space Station for 35 days, sire healthy offspring.
Article in Scientific reports, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- The transgenerational toll of maternal spaceflight.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- ibSLS as a biobank for democratizing access to multi-omics data and biospecimens from spaceflight research.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Technologized Reproduction in Space: A Space-Bioethical Case for Assisted Procreation.Bioethics · 2026Article
- The challenges and prospects of mammalian reproduction in extraterrestrial environments.The Journal of reproduction and development · 2026Review
- A biological and ethical assessment of whether humans could or should reproduce in space.NPJ microgravity · 2025Review
- Can Humanity Thrive Beyond the Galaxy?The Journal of reproduction and development · 2025Review
- Impact of microgravity and lunar gravity on murine skeletal and immune systems during space travel.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Multiple genes in the Pate5-13 genomic region contribute to ADAM3 processing†.Biology of reproduction · 2024Article
- Long-term space missions' effects on the human organism: what we do know and what requires further research.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Review
- Effect of microgravity on mammalian embryo development evaluated at the International Space Station.iScience · 2023Article
- Article
- Human development and reproduction in space-a European perspective.NPJ microgravity · 2023Review
- Addressing Spaceflight Biology through the Lens of a Histologist-Embryologist.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Single Cell in a Gravity Field.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Sperm membrane proteins DCST1 and DCST2 are required for sperm-egg interaction in mice and fish.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Effects of space flight on sperm function and integrity: A systematic review.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Impact of spaceflight and artificial gravity on sulfur metabolism in mouse liver: sulfur metabolomic and transcriptomic analysis.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Intergenerational effect of short-term spaceflight in mice.iScience · 2021Article
- Transcriptome analysis of gravitational effects on mouse skeletal muscles under microgravity and artificial 1 g onboard environment.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Study of mouse behavior in different gravity environments.Scientific reports · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The effect on the reproductive system and fertility of living in a space environment remains unclear. Here, we caged 12 male mice under artificial gravity (≈1 gravity) (AG) or microgravity (MG) in the International Space Station (ISS) for 35 days, and characterized the male reproductive organs (testes, epididymides, and accessory glands) after their return to earth. Mice caged on earth during the 35 days served as a "ground" control (GC). Only a decrease in accessory gland weight was detected in AG and MG males; however, none of the reproductive organs showed any overt microscopic defects or changes in gene expression as determined by RNA-seq. The cauda epididymal spermatozoa from AG and MG mice could fertilize oocytes in vitro at comparable levels as GC males. When the fertilized eggs were transferred into pseudo-pregnant females, there was no significant difference in pups delivered (pups/transferred eggs) among GC, AG, and MG spermatozoa. In addition, the growth rates and fecundity of the obtained pups were comparable among all groups. We conclude that short-term stays in outer space do not cause overt defects in the physiological function of male reproductive organs, sperm function, and offspring viability.
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