Effects Of Different Gravitational Environments On Mechanotransduction In Rat Osteoblasts

Exposure to weightlessness during space flight may lead to a state of structural and functional alteration in crewmembers skeleton system, which is manifested most clearly by the loss of bone mass and bone mineral, declines in bone mechanical function and negative calcium balance. These alterations may cause the pathological symptoms such as bone fracture, renal calculus and arteriosclerosis during long-term space flight, and they would also severely influence the performance and the health of crewmembers during space flight or after they returning to the surface of the earth. The alterations caused by the exposure to weightlessness were described as osteopenia induced by weightlessness (OW) in the field of space life science. Even after several decades of extensive researches on OW, the basic mechanisms of the alterations in skeleton system have not been fully elucidated up to now, and the physiological effects of counter-measures against OW are still limited. Understanding the nature of the effects of...