ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1477311
This article is part of the Research TopicAerospace Health and Safety: Today and the Future, Volume IIView all 12 articles
Peripheral skin cooling during gravitational challenges in parabolic flight - experimental protocol, implementation, and case study of the CoolFly experiment
Provisionally accepted- 1Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 2Hannover Medical School, Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany
- 3Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany
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Ensuring cardiovascular stability is critical for the lasting and prosperous success of human spaceflight. Astronauts are exposed to dynamic acceleration profiles and prolonged changes of gravity which pose serious acute and long-term health risks. Parabolic flight is a model for gravity induced cardiovascular instability. In this proof-of-concept, we aim at analyzing the feasibility and effectiveness of peripheral cooling (PC) as a countermeasure during parabolic.In this study, we employed a cross-over trial to investigate the effectiveness of PC in enhancing cardiovascular tolerance during gravitational changes simulated via parabolic flight. Continuous, non-invasive blood pressure, heart rate, peripheral oxygenation and brain oxygenation, peripheral blood flow, as well as skin and brain temperature were assessed. This study is a proofof-concept for experimental feasibility and qualitative effectiveness of PC during parabolic flight.Our case study data showed reductions in heart rate of 10.0% (6.79bpm) and reduced changes in heart rate during gravitational changes (standard deviation 12.55 vs. 10.37bpm). Further, we observed reduced blood pressure reactions to altered gravity (-20/+39mmHg vs. -9/+8mmHg), with minimal changes in skin (0.27°C) and brain core temperature (0.14°C) as well as reduced changes in micro-perfusion comparing PC with control.This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that peripheral cooling is feasible during parabolic Commented [TB1]: Editor Comment 1 Editor Comment 7 Editor Comment 8 Commented [TB2]: Editor Comment 1 Editor Comment 7 Editor Comment 8 Commented [TB3]: Editor Comment 1 Editor Comment 7flight and may attenuate cardiovascular responses, as indicated by reduced heart rate and blood pressure fluctuations. These preliminary findings support further controlled studies to assess PC as a non-invasive countermeasure to changes in gravitation.
Keywords: space, orthostatic in, Cardiovascular stability, Blood Pressure, extreme environment, countermeasure Editor Comment 1 Editor Comment 7 Commented [TB6]: Editor Comment 2 Editor Comment 3 Editor Comment 2 Editor Comment 3
Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bothe, Heinz, Pilz, Fesseler, Patzak, Bruckstein, Nordine, Gunga and Opatz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tomas L. Bothe, Charité University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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