[Electrolyte makeup of the blood plasma and skeletal muscles of rats after a flight on the Kosmos-690 biosatellite].

Measurements of Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ concentrations in the functionally different muscles (soleus, plantaris, diaphragm muscles) and plasma of the rats flown for 20.5 days aboard the biosatellite Cosmos-690 did not show any significant changes as compared with the controls. At the same time a decrease of the K+/Na+ ratio and a similar shift of Mg2+ and Ca2+ concentrations in plasma of irradiated rats as compared with these of non-irradiated animals demonstrated that the combined effects of space flight factors and gamma-irradiation influenced the system of ionic homeostasis in the blood. In the animals sacrificed on the R + 1 day the K+/Na+ ratio in the soleus muscle changed in favor of Na+ and in the plantaris muscle in favor of K+, and remained essentially unchanged in the diaphragm. The comparison of the flight experiments with the ground-based controls showed that ion changes in muscles occurred due to ionizing radiation rather than due to weightlessness.