SPACE-FLIGHT EFFECTS ON SKELETAL BONES OF RATS (LIGHT AND ELECTRON-MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION)

  • 1 January 1976
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 47  (7) , 734-738
Abstract
In light microscopy and EM, long tubular bones of Wistar rats that were flown for 22 days onboard the Cosmos-605 biosatellite and were exposed to a ground-based simulation experiment were examained. About half of the flight rats showed osteoporosis of metaphyses which was usually combined with a decrease of the mass of the primary spongiosa in the vicinity of the epiphyseal cartilaginous plate. The growth of the bones may have been inhibited in flight. The light microscopy and EM of bones of flight rats revealed wide osteocyte lacunae which may have been produced by perilacunar osteolysis. In the simulation experiment, reduction in the metaphyseal spongiosa occurred only in 1/3 of the rats and was less pronounced than in flight rats; no decrease of the mass of the primary spongiosa near the cartilaginous plate was noted. Histological investigation of bones 27 days postflight demonstrated that that time period was not enough to eliminate all the changes in the bones tested.