Effects of chronic acceleration in animals

Chronic acceleration describes the exposure of animals to increased acceleration fields of sufficient intensity and duration to induce physiological adaptation. By comparing the degree of changes observed in several fields with the acceleration intensity, it is possible to derive an estimate of the biological effect of gravity. For technical reasons, such studies are limited to artificial fields produced by protracted centrifugation. Observations by various investigators indicate a fairly general response to chronic acceleration. Over the size range presented by these species (0.04-5 kg), there appears to be a direct relationship between body mass and the degree of the acceleration-induced effect (tolerable field intensity, growth repression, inhibition of fat (correction of far) deposition, etc.). However, different response patterns may obtain in homeotherms that differ significantly from this body size range.