Gazenko O G, Ilyin E A
Institute of Biomedical Problems, USSR Ministry of Health, Moscow.
Adv Space Res. 1986;6(12):101-6. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(86)90072-4.
The program of the 7-day flight of the biosatellite Cosmos-1667 launched in July 1985 included experiments on two rhesus monkeys, ten Wistar SPF rats, ten newts, Drosophila flies, maize seedlings, lettuce sprouts, and unicellular organisms--Tetrahymena. The primate study demonstrated that transition to orbital flight was accompanied by a greater excitability of the vestibular apparatus and an increased linear blood flow velocity in the common carotid artery. The rat studies showed that atrophy of antigravity muscles and osteoporosis of limb bones developed even during short-term exposure to microgravity. The experiments on other living systems revealed no microgravity effects on the cell division rate, proliferative activity of cells of regenerating tissues and organs, energy metabolism of developing insects, structure or chemical composition of higher plant seedlings.
