title: Ground-based assessment of JAXA mouse habitat cage unit by mouse phenotypic studies.
abstract: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency developed the mouse Habitat Cage Unit (HCU) for installation in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) onboard the Japanese Experimental Module ("Kibo") on the International Space Station. The CBEF provides "space-based controls" by generating artificial gravity in the HCU through a centrifuge, enabling a comparison of the biological consequences of microgravity and artificial gravity of 1 g on mice housed in space. Therefore, prior to the space experiment, a ground-based study to validate the habitability of the HCU is necessary to conduct space experiments using the HCU in the CBEF. Here, we investigated the ground-based effect of a 32-day housing period in the HCU breadboard model on male mice in comparison with the control cage mice. Morphology of skeletal muscle, the thymus, heart, and kidney, and the sperm function showed no critical abnormalities between the control mice and HCU mice. Slight but significant changes caused by the HCU itself were observed, including decreased body weight, increased weights of the thymus and gastrocnemius, reduced thickness of cortical bone of the femur, and several gene expressions from 11 tissues. Results suggest that the HCU provides acceptable conditions for mouse phenotypic analysis using CBEF in space, as long as its characteristic features are considered. Thus, the HCU is a feasible device for future space experiments.
authors.affiliation: Mouse Epigenetics Project, ISS/Kibo experiment, JAXA, Japan.
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authors.lastname: Shiga
authors.forename: Junji
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authors.lastname: Ishida
authors.forename: Juri
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authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Kazuya
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authors.lastname: Murata
authors.forename: Tomohiro
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authors.lastname: Ishimaru
authors.forename: Misuzu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Akiyoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fukamizu
authors.forename: Mutsumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamane
authors.forename: Masahito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikawa
authors.forename: Hironobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shinohara
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Asahara
authors.forename: Taishin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: Nobuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasanuma
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Taito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kokubu
authors.forename: Taka-Aki K
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Hisako
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishimine
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurisaki
authors.forename: Dai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shiba
authors.forename: Hiroyasu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shirakawa
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Satoru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005269:Femur / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006112:Gravitation; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006799:Housing, Animal; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D010641:Phenotype; D013026:Space Flight; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000502:physiology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D013997:Time Factors; D014893:Weightlessness
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