Prolonged space travel could suppress the immune systems of astronauts and alter metabolism, a new study has revealed.
Complications could arise because of shifts in the gut.
Understanding long-haul space missions is critical as humans spend more and more time in space to study the universe and plan travel to Mars.
Using genetic technologies, a team of researchers, led by those at Canada's McGill University, analysed changes in the guts, colons and livers of mice onboard the International Space Station or the ISS over a period of three months.
An international collaboration of NASA and other space agencies, the ISS is a spacecraft in the Earth's orbit. It is a unique science lab and serves as a "home where crews of astronauts" live, according to the NASA.
The authors found significant shifts in gut bacteria that indicated changes in the mice's liver and intestinal genes, suggesting that spaceflight might suppress the immune system and alter metabolism.
"These interactions suggest disruption of the signals, metabolites, and immune factors exchanged across the gut-liver axis which are likely to drive glucose and lipid (fat) dysregulation," the authors wrote in the study published in the journal npj Biofilms and Microbiomes.
"Collectively, these multiomic findings suggest host-gut microbiome interactions during spaceflight are likely to underlie widespread changes to host physiology which could pose a risk to health," they wrote.
The researchers said the study's results can help develop safeguards and ensure success of future space missions, from establishing a long-term presence on the moon to sending humans to Mars.
"Spaceflight extensively alters astronauts' bodies, yet we still don't fully understand why. By using advanced techniques to study both gut bacteria and genes at the same time, we're beginning to see patterns that could explain those changes and help us develop safeguards for future missions," lead author Emmanuel Gonzalez from the McGill University said.
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