Health & Biomedical Sciences Faculty Publications
Spaceflight suppresses inflammasome signaling and alters dopaminergic regulation in the mouse brain from Rodent Research-1 (RR-1) mission
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-4-2026
Abstract
Microgravity and radiation exposure during spaceflight pose significant health risks to astronauts, including disruption of physiological and neural homeostasis and increased risk of neurodegenerative disorders. Spaceflight induces neuroinflammatory responses, including inflammasome formation, which regulates innate immune signaling following cellular damage. Additionally, reduced neuromuscular activity in microgravity is associated with altered dopamine signaling. However, the direct effect on inflammasome activation and dopaminergic regulation under spaceflight is still poorly understood. In this study, we examined the genes and proteins that are associated with the inflammasome and the dopamine dysregulation associated with inflammation in mice exposed to spaceflight conditions. Mouse brains (C57BL/6J) from Rodent Research 1 (RR1, SpaceX-4) missions were analyzed based on exposure to spaceflight, simulated, and standard conditions for a baseline and control. Brain samples were analyzed for gene expression of inflammasome signaling genes and for mRNA expression to detect alterations under spaceflight conditions. Dopamine analysis was also performed to identify possible changes in major monoamines. This observation indicated that spaceflight conditions were associated with suppressed inflammasome-related gene expression with no statistically observable changes in monoamine concentration. Overall, the data established that spaceflight stressors concurrently dampen neuroinflammatory signaling while altering dopamine regulation in the brain.
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez, Angel A., Deepa Roy, Marissa Burke, Mario Gil, Xiao Wen Mao, Juan Pablo, Christopher E. Mason de Rivero Vaccari, Ginger Milne, and Upal Roy. "Spaceflight suppresses inflammasome signaling and alters dopaminergic regulation in the mouse brain from Rodent Research-1 (RR-1) mission." Journal of Neuroinflammation (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-026-03913-0
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Journal of Neuroinflammation
DOI
10.1186/s12974-026-03913-0
Comments
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material.