Effect of short- and long-term spaceflight on the contractile properties of rat skeletal muscles with different functions

Abstract

In the Cosmos biosputnik 1514, 1667, 1887, 2044 and 1129 the rats 5, 7, 12,5, 15, 18,5 days were in weightlessness state. Due to the adaptation of the skeletal muscles' weightlessness the adaptation was different in various muscles, which depends on the time of participation in antigravitation, the composition of the fibers and from the biometrical characteristics. In different muscles, the changing of the metabolism and the structure of the muscles more than likely in connection with the changing of the myosin subordinate unit compositions. In our experiments we had studied, as to how the muscular atrophy changes, does it increase all the time, or does it balances out after reaching a certain stage.