What Does Space Travel Do To Human Body? NASA Releases Results From 'Year In Space' Twins Study

First Posted: Jan 30, 2017 04:58 AM EST

The long-awaited release of NASA's "Year In Space" twins study finally arrived and has brought revelations on how long-duration space flights could affect the human body.

PBS News Hour reported that scientists have landed into a series of conclusions after studying the difference in the bodies of twin astronauts: Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and his retired brother Mark Kelly, in an experiment that started before Scott was launched into space aboard a Soyuz rocket for a year-long stay at the International Space Station (ISS) on March 2015.

The researchers presented their data at the NASA Human Research Program workshop, showing huge contrasts in Scott and Mark's gene expression signatures. Due to the drastic change of environment in microgravity, Scott's genes displayed major shifts on its regular activities as well as a decrease in his DNA methylation -- a process linked to aging, neural development and carcinogenesis.

While Mark's DNA methylation increased as he remained on the planet, the researchers added that Scott's methylation was restored to his pre-flight status few days after he returned to Earth.

Although the reason behind this activity remains unclear, scientists are looking forward to learning more of this process in the near future.

"The greatest importance of the study is to show that we can do it," said the study's team member, Johns Hopkins geneticist Andrew Feinberg. "I don't think people realized it would be so easy to do genomics on astronauts in space."

According to NASA, the Twins Study aims to focus on the effects of long-duration space flight on human physiology, microbiology/microbiome, molecular/omics and behavioral health.

"These investigations will look at how the spaceflight environment may induce changes in different organs like the heart, muscles or brain," as well as to "help characterize the effects spaceflight may have on perception and reasoning, decision making and alertness," among others.