Morphological characteristics of the kidney and lung in the neonatal rats observed after 16 days spaceflight.
The aim of this study is to examine the structural development in kidney and lung macroscopically which relate with cardiovascular system in rats raised in space. Twenty three nine-day old rats and six fifteen-day old rats, which were launched at these ages and nursed by their dams in the Space Shuttle Colombia for 16 days (STS-90; Neurolab). Seventeen animals of the nine-day old rats were defined as the nine-day group, and the rest was defined as the re-adaptation group, which were reared on the ground for 30 more days after landing. The organs were weighed and the ratio of the organ weight to the body weight (body weight ratio) was calculated. Both of lung and kidney in flight rats were significantly heavier than ground controls in the body weight ratio. We found that the kidney in the nine-day and the fifteen-day group tended to extend of dorsal-ventral length in macroscopic observations. However, this difference was not observed in the re-adaptation group. These results suggest that space environment may affect in kidney development. On the other hand, the lung had no differences in macroscopic structure among flight and control groups.
Miyake
Masao
M
Department of Physiology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan.
Yamasaki
Masao
M
Waki
Hidefumi
H
Katahira
Kiyoaki
K
O-ishi
Hirotaka
H
Katsuda
Shin-ichiro
S
Nagayama
Tadanori
T
Ijiri
Kenichi
K
Hazama
Akihiro
A
Shimizu
Tsuyoshi
T
D000818:Animals; D007668:Kidney / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D009929:Organ Size; D051381:Rats; D013026:Space Flight; D014893:Weightlessness