Transcriptional analysis of dorsal skin from mice flown on the RR-5 mission

To this end, a cohort of forty 30-weeks-old female BALB/cAnNTac mice were flown to the ISS and housed in the Rodent Habitat. Six days after launch half of the mice were treated with NELL-1 (10 mg/kg in 0.3 ml PBS), while the other half were treated with vehicle control (0.3 mls PBS).

Fourteen days after launch animals were again treated with NELL-1 or vehicle control as before, except that all animals were also injected with the bone marker, calcein green (20 mg/kg in 0.1 ml). Injections of vehicle, NELL-1, and bone markers were intraperitoneal. After all forty mice on orbit received two treatments; ten control mice and ten experimental mice were randomly selected for live animal return (LAR).