Immunology and Infection in Space

Abstract

This article on alterations of immune responses in space travel is intended to provide a review of the background and rationale for the hypothesis that immune function of humans on long‐term space flight missions will be sufficiently altered that immune compromise occurs, thus rendering astronauts subject to opportunistic infections, particularly activation of latent viruses and the development of malignancies. The article reviews published information on the evidence of immune compromise in humans and animals flown in space and in human and animal earth‐bound models of spaceflight. These alterations in immune function are discussed in the context of model secondary immunodeficiency states where external forces predispose humans to repetitive infection, debilitation, and cancer. An attempt will be made to quantitate the degree of immune impairment observed in space travelers and earth‐bound equivalent model subjects and to predict what the astronauts on the Mars Mission might experience in terms of the occurrence of reactivated viral infections and the development of malignancy. Because this article includes many technical terms that may not be familiar to the reader, a glossary of immunological terms is included.