Effects of prolonged space flight on rat skeletal muscle

The effect of a 20-day space flight on water, Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and glycogen contents as well as on activities of glycogen metabolism enzymes--glycogen synthetase and glycogen phosphorylase--of rat skeletal muscles was studied. This data is regarded as an integral test characterizing the state of contractile tissue of the animals at the final stage of flight aboard biosatellites. The measurements indicate that there were no significant changes of cations and glycogen contents nor of the enzymic activities in fast-twitch muscles during the 20-day spaceflight. At the same time dehydration in these muscles was observed, which disappeared on the 25th postflight day. In slow-twitch antigravitational skeletal muscle (m. soleus) there was a decrease of K+ and increase of Na+ in the tissue contents. The changes disappeared at the end of the on-earth readaptation period. From the pattern of these observations, we can conclude that the 20-day space flight leads to some reversible biochemical changes of the rat skeletal muscles. A conclusion can be drawn about necessity of creating, aboard the spaceship, an artificial load on antigravitational skeletal muscles.