Weightlessness posed a mystery to scientists: the body of the testers stopped the expected muscle atrophy

The Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences is looking for an answer to why this happened

A new experiment with the participation of volunteers is being prepared at the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. They will have to lie without getting up for two weeks in special immersion baths that help simulate weightlessness, and scientists will observe the changes that occur in their bodies. Elena Tomilovskaya, head of the Department of Sensorimotor Physiology and Prevention of the IBMP RAS, spoke about what new aspects of the impact of weightlessness on the human body they want to study at the institute.

This is how the “dry” immersion experiment goes. Photo: IBMP RAS

Recall that during “dry” immersion a person is immersed in a bath filled with water, the water envelops the body on all sides, but it remains dry, since there is a thin film between it and the water.

“For many years we have been working with short immersions, from 3 to 7 days, and have studied quite well what changes such short exposures cause in the body,” says Elena Tomilovskaya. – The testers, as expected, developed atony and muscle atrophy, decreased vertical stability, and observed other consequences of lack of support and axial (axial) load. Then, in 2018-2019, a three-week immersion was carried out, the results of which surprised us very much: the body somehow stopped the negative changes that we had previously seen, protecting itself from further degradation. Now we have decided to understand what the process of such adaptation to weightlessness is in the third week of a conditional flight? This requires an experiment that will take two weeks so that we can record the intermediate state of the testers' motor system. 

From August to November 2024, according to the researcher, a background two-week experiment will take place, followed by two others, in which scientists will check which factor has a greater influence on the condition of the muscles: lack of support in a person (then yes, loads on the feet) or the absence of axial weight load.

That is, in the future, two-week experiments in immersion baths will be carried out as follows. Volunteer testers will first be dressed in a suit simulating an axial load (“Penguin”) or undergo support stimulation.

To participate in the background experiment, IBMP wants to recruit volunteers — healthy men without bad habits, average fitness , aged from 24 to 40 years, height up to 180 cm and weight up to 80 kg.