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Physiology of a microgravity environment selected contribution: effects of spaceflight during pregnancy on labor and birth at 1 GThe events of parturition (labor, delivery, maternal care, placentophagia, and onset of nursing) were analyzed in female Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) flown on either 11- or 9-day-long spaceflights beginning at the approximate midpoint of their pregnancies. Each space shuttle flight landed on the 20th day of the rats' pregnancies, just 48-72 h before parturition. After spaceflight, dams were continuously monitored and recorded by time-lapse videography throughout the completion of parturition and onset of nursing (days 22 and 23). Analyses of parturition revealed that, compared with ground controls, flight dams displayed twice the number of lordosis contractions, the predominant labor contraction type in rats. The number of vertical contractions (those that immediately precede expulsion of a pup from the womb), the duration of labor, fetal wastage, number of neonates born, neonatal birth weights, placentophagia, and maternal care during parturition, including the onset of nursing, were comparable in flight and ground control dams. Our findings indicate that, with the exception of labor contractions, mammalian pregnancy and parturition remain qualitatively and quantitatively intact after spaceflight during pregnancy.
Document ID
20040141457
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Ronca, A. E.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field CA United States)
Alberts, J. R.
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 2000
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)
Volume: 89
Issue: 2
ISSN: 8750-7587
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: MH-28355
CONTRACT_GRANT: MH-46485
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Non-NASA Center
NASA Experiment Number 9303031 1/2
STS-70 Shuttle Project
manned
NASA Experiment Number 9303031 2/2
NASA Discipline Developmental Biology
STS-66 Shuttle Project
Flight Experiment
short duration

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