Maternal Behavior Under Different Gravitational Conditions

In 1995, ten pregnant female rats were launched on the Space Shuttle (STS-70) on Gestational day (G)11 of their 22-day pregnancy as part of the NASA/NIH.Rodent(R)2 Experiment. Following landing on G20, fetuses were harvested from half of the dams, while the remaining five dams underwent birth. Spaceflight did not interrupt pregnancy, alter litter sizes, or affect body weights or gender ratios of the fetuses or neonates. Analyses of rats exposed to Hypergravity (HG) at 2.0-g, HG 1.75-g, HG 1.5-g were also conducted. Dams were exposed to continuous centrifugation from G11 through G20, with brief daily stops for animal health checks and maintenance. For both the G20 and Birth dams, comparable litter sizes and litter gender ratios were observed across gravity conditions. However, centrifugation-exposed (HG and RC) fetuses and neonates showed significantly lower body masses (p<0.05) relative to SC offspring. HG 2.0-g offspring weighed significantly less than those in all other gravity conditions (p<0.05). Changes in the mothers' care of the young will be discussed.