The Italian Space Agency, in line with its scientific strategies and the National Utilization Plan for the International Space Station (ISS), contracted Thales Alenia Space Italia to design and build a spaceflight payload for rodent research on ISS: the Mice Drawer System (MDS). The payload, to be integrated inside the Space Shuttle middeck during transportation and inside the Express Rack in the ISS during experiment execution, was designed to function autonomously for more than 3 months and to involve crew only for maintenance activities. In its first mission, three wild type (Wt) and three transgenic male mice over-expressing pleiotrophin under the control of a bone-specific promoter (PTN-Tg) were housed in the MDS. At the time of launch, animals were 2-months old. MDS reached the ISS on board of Shuttle Discovery Flight 17A/STS-128 on August 28th, 2009. MDS returned to Earth on November 27th, 2009 with Shuttle Atlantis Flight ULF3/STS-129 after 91 days, performing the longest permanence of mice in space. Unfortunately, during the MDS mission, one PTN-Tg and two Wt mice died due to health status or payload-related reasons. The remaining mice showed a normal behavior throughout the experiment and appeared in excellent health conditions at landing. During the experiment, the mice health conditions and their water and food consumption were daily checked. Upon landing mice were sacrificed, blood parameters measured and tissues dissected for subsequent analysis. To obtain as much information as possible on microgravity-induced tissue modifications, we organized a Tissue Sharing Program: 20 research groups from 6 countries participated. In order to distinguish between possible effects of the MDS housing conditions and effects due to the near-zero gravity environment, a ground replica of the flight experiment was performed at the University of Genova. Control tissues were collected also from mice maintained on Earth in standard vivarium cages.

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To test the effects of low levels of radiation from space on living organisms, we flew Xenopus laevis embryos at different stages of development on a stratospheric balloon (BI.R.BA mission). After recovery, different parameters were analyzed to assess the effects of flight, with particular regard to oxidative stress damage. Because of failed temperature control during flight, the flight shielded embryos (FC) could not be used for biochemical or morphological comparisons. In contrast, the incubation conditions (i.e. temperature, containers, volumes) for the flight embryos (F) were parallel to those for the ground controls. Mortality data show that younger embryos (16 h) flown on the balloon (F) are more sensitive to radiation exposure than older ones (40 h and 6 days). Exposure during flight lowered the antioxidant potential in all embryos, particularly older ones. These preliminary data demonstrate that flight on a stratospheric balloon might affect antioxidant metabolism, though it is not yet possible to correlate these results with low radiation exposure during flight.