[Influence of space flight factors on peripheral red blood cells in humans]

Investigations of cosmonauts' peripheral red blood prior to and on days 1, 7 and 14 post long-term MIR-19 and -20 missions dealt with the morphological composition of blood, indices of iron exchange, correlation of erythrocyte shapes, and the lipid and phospholipid profiles of the erythrocyte membrane. To this avail, methods of light electron microscopy, radioimmune analysis, and thin-layer microscopy were used. Among the unidirectional shifts in the crewmembers of these missions were changes in ion exchange indices and the lipid and phospholipid profiles of erythrocyte membrane which were indicative of increased microviscosity of the lipid layer. Number of erythrocytes and hemoglobin content were reduced; transformed erythrocytes were present. It was also discovered that the fraction of normal erythrocytes (diskocytes) was partially replaced by spherocytes, cnisocytes in flight and typically by echinocytosis post flight. By and large, the observed shifts do not have any clinical implications and are most likely the blood system reaction to the stress of readaptation to the terrestrial conditions.