Regulation of ICAM-1 in Cells of the Monocyte/Macrophage System in Microgravity

Figure 1

Technology for cell culture experiments in different microgravity research platforms. (a) Fast-rotating two-dimensional (2D) clinostat manufactured by the German Aerospace Center (DLR, Cologne, Germany) was used to provide simulated microgravity. Under the chosen experimental conditions (60 rpm, 4 mm pipette diameter) a maximal residual acceleration of 4 × 10⁻³g is achieved at the outer radius of the pipette and decreases towards the center. (b) Experimental hardware structure which consists of an incubator rack to store the cell containers temporarily before the experiment at 37^°C (left), an experimental rack in which all active aggregates are accommodated and where the living cells are handled during altered gravity (right) and a cooling rack to temporarily store all cell containers after the injection of the stop/fixation liquid at 4^°C until landing (front). (c) Payload of TEXUS-49 sounding rocket tempered and vacuum-resistant container with experiment syringe systems. (d) Plunger unit EUE for SIMBOX (Science in Microgravity Box) incubator system, support structure (housing made of PEEK), which includes three culture chambers and six supply units, two for each culture compartment. Each culture chamber represents an independent loop. The culture chambers filled with medium are closed on the top of the housing by means of polycarbonate specimen window slides, where the adherent cells are attached beforehand. The housing is tightened by silicon sealing and covered by an aluminum plate (cover) fixed with screws.

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