Functional adaptation of different rat skeletal muscles to weightlessness

The adaptation to weightlessness of two postural muscles, the slow soleus (SOL) and the fast gastrocnemius lateralis (GL), and a fast muscle used in movements, the extensor digitorum longus (EDL), was studied on five adult Wistar rats. The animals exposed to 14-day spaceflight aboard COSMOS 2044, designated as flight (F), were compared with synchronous (S) animals. The experiments were performed on single skinned fibers whose functional properties were studied. After weightlessness, the SOL exhibited two populations of fibers according to their Sr2+ affinities: 40% remained slow (Fs) and 60% acquired fast-type properties (Ff). Both S and F GL and EDL showed a single distributed population of fast fibers. SOL fibers atrophied insofar as they showed a significant reduction in fiber diameter and absolute maximal tension Po (mg) but not in Po expressed in kg/cm2. GL fibers showed no change in fiber diameter but a decrease in Po in mg and kg/cm2. EDL fibers were not atrophied by weightlessness. The tension/Ca concentration relationships of the Ff SOL and F GL fibers were shifted to the right, indicating a decrease in their Ca2+ affinity. An increase in the contraction kinetics was described for the SOL fibers after weightlessness, whereas no significant modification was found for the GL and EDL. Collectively, the data suggested that the adaptive changes subsequent to weightlessness were more dependent on the muscle function than on the fiber type, since both postural SOL and GL were modified.