Suda T, Abe E, Shinki T, Katagiri T, Yamaguchi A, Yokose S, Yoshiki S, Horikawa H, Cohen G W, Yasugi S
Department of Biochemistry, School of Dentistry, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan.
FEBS Lett. 1994 Feb 28;340(1-2):34-8. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(94)80168-1.
Thirty fertilized chick eggs preincubated for 0, 7 and 10 days on earth (10 eggs each) were flown in the space shuttle 'Endeavour' and further incubated for 7 days under microgravity. Twenty out of thirty eggs (9/10 ten-day-old; 10/10 seven-day-old; 1/10 zero-day-old) were recovered alive after landing. The only living embryo of the zero-day-old group died 24 days after launch, and was comparable to a 16-day-old embryo. The high mortality of the 0-day-old eggs appeared to be related to the specific inner structure of the egg. Simulation experiments performed on earth indicated that when yolk stayed in the albumen for more than 2 days, most of the embryos died. The subtle difference in specific gravity between the yolk (1.029) and albumen (1.040) plays a critical role in early chick embryogenesis.
