Effect of weightlessness and hypokinesia on the contractile properties of bundles of glycerinated rat muscle fibers
Gaevskaya, M.S.; Ivanov, I.I.; Karsanov, N.V.; Gabadze, N.V.; Magaldadze, V.A.; Mikhaleva, N.P.; Nosova, E.A.
Kosmicheskaia Biologiia i Aviakosmicheskaia Meditsina 12(4): 72-74
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0321-5040 PMID: 682567 Document Number: 137383
The effect of weightlessness and prolonged hypokinesis on the contractile function of the myofibril of the skeletal muscles of Wistar rats during a 22 day space flight on the biosatellite or a state of limited mobility for 50 days was investigated. Study of the contractile properties of the bundles of glycerol-treated myofibers makes it possible to evaluate pathological disturbances directly in the protein complex of the myofibril apparatus. Data were presented on stress developed by the bundles of glycerol-treated fibers of rat skeletal muscles after space flight and after a ground experiment. No reliable differences were found 2 and 27 days after flight and in controls with the exception of musculus tibialis anterior after 27 days, which was reliably higher than the control. On the basis of preliminary data, weightlessness and hypokinesia did not result in pathological changes in the protein complex of the myofibril apparatus.