Does Spaceflight Cause Liver Damage?

Mice that spent less than two weeks in space back in 2011 — during STS-135, the final mission of NASA's space shuttle program — came back to Earth showing signs of early-stage liver disease, a new study reports. These are all indicators of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), researchers said. "It generally takes a long time, months to years, to induce fibrosis in mice, even when eating an unhealthy diet," study lead author Karen Jonscher, a physicist and associate professo