Hypergravity promotes cell proliferation.

When HeLa cells, chicken embryo fibroblasts, sarcoma Galliera cells, Friend leukemia virus transformed cells and human lymphocytes are cultured in a hypergravitational field (e.g. 10 X g) proliferation rate is increased by 20-30%, whereas glucose consumption per cell is lower than at 1 X g. Tracking of cell movements on gold-coated substrates reveals that cell migration is hindered at high-g. These findings suggest that under gravitational stress the cell is either capable of shifting to other metabolic pathways and/or consumes less energy at high-g than at 1 X g. This work describes ground-based investigations related to experiments to be performed on future Spacelab missions.