Spaceflight and development of immune responses

The NIH.R1 Space Shuttle experiment wasdesigned to study the effects of spaceflight on rodent development.Pregnant rats were flown on the Space Shuttle for 11 days, and pregnantcontrol rats were maintained in animal enclosure modules in aground-based chamber under conditions approximating those in flight.Additional controls were in standard housing. The effects of the flighton immunological parameters of dams, fetuses, and pups were determined. Blastogenesis of spleen cells in response to mitogen was inhibited inflown dams but was not inhibited in cells from their pups. Interferon- production by spleen cells showed a trend toward inhibition in flown dams but not in their pups. The response of bonemarrow cells to colony-stimulating factor showed a trend towardinhibition after spaceflight in dams, but the response of fetus and pupliver cells was not inhibited. Total serum IgG was not affected byspaceflight. None of the examined immune parameters that were alteredin rat dams after spaceflight was found to be altered in theiroffspring.