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The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether mortality rates due to cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, accidents and all other causes of death differ in (1) astronauts who never flew orbital missions in space, (2) astronauts who flew only in low Earth orbit (LEO) and (3) Apollo lunar astronauts, the only humans to have traveled beyond Earth\u2019s magnetosphere. Results show there were no differences in CVD mortality rate between non-flight (9%) and LEO (11%) astronauts. However, the CVD mortality rate among Apollo lunar astronauts (43%) was 4\u20135 times higher than in non-flight and LEO astronauts. To test a possible mechanistic basis for these findings, a secondary purpose was to determine the long-term effects of simulated weightlessness and space-relevant total-body irradiation on vascular responsiveness in mice. The results demonstrate that space-relevant irradiation induces a sustained vascular endothelial cell dysfunction. Such impairment is known to lead to occlusive artery disease and may be an important risk factor for CVD among astronauts exposed to deep space radiation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/srep29901","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,7,28]],"date-time":"2016-07-28T08:58:11Z","timestamp":1469696291000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":201,"title":["Apollo Lunar Astronauts Show Higher Cardiovascular Disease Mortality: Possible Deep Space Radiation Effects on the Vascular Endothelium"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Michael D.","family":"Delp","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jacqueline M.","family":"Charvat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Charles L.","family":"Limoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruth K.","family":"Globus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Payal","family":"Ghosh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2016,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"BFsrep29901_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"882","DOI":"10.4330\/wjc.v7.i12.882","volume":"7","author":"M Boerma","year":"2015","unstructured":"Boerma, M. et al. 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