[A portable impedance meter for monitoring liquid compartments of human body under space flight conditions].

A portable two-frequency tetrapolar impedance meter was developed to study the state of liquid compartments of human body under zero-gravity conditions. The portable impedance meter makes it possible to monitor the hydration state of human body under conditions of long-term space flight on board international space station.

[A system for biomaterial handling and sample pretreatment in conditions of weightlessness]. / Apparaturnyi kompleks dlia obrabotki biomateriala i podgotovki prob v usloviiakh nevesomosti.

To perform laboratory biochemical, immunologic and microbiological analyses and special pretreatment and stabilization of biosamples immediately on the space station, system Plasma-03 was designed and manufactured and associated procedure for sample collection and pretreatment was developed. Main elements of the system are a refrigerator/thermostat, centrifuge and returnable container, and a set of accessories and expendables. The system meets the requirements to the equipment to be employed in crew health monitoring and biochemical experiments on board the International space station.

[Microvzor-2: a system for automated dry blood smear analysis]. / Mikrovzor-2: kompleks avtomaticheskogo analiza krovi po sukhomu mazku.

Upgraded system Microvzor-2 for investigation of blood morphology in space flight is composed of soft- and hardware for dry smear image analysis. Ground-based testing showed that it could be utilized to investigate a broad spectrum of blood parameters in space flight, including erythrocytes, hemoglobin content in erythrocytes, volumetric erythrocyte distribution, diagnostics of anisocytosis, and poikilocytosis, leukocytes and leukocyte count. Analyzed are smears prepared from a fixed volume of finger blood. The process consists of smear scanning, input of the vision field images in the spacecraft computer and ensuing automated identification and counting. Information is stored in a dedicated database. Results of analysis are displayed as forms and cell galleries.

Results of space experiment program "Interferon".

The results of the biological space experiment "Interferon" performed by two international cosmonaut teams (26 May 1980, and 16 May 1981) aboard space laboratory Solyut-6 are reported: (1) Human lymphocytes separated from blood of healthy donors and placed into "Interferon I" equipment could be kept for 7 days in suspension culture under spaceflight conditions. Interferon production could be induced in human lymphocytes by preparations of different origin: virus, synthetic polyribonucleotides, bacterial protein and plant pigment. An increased lymphocyte interferon production in space laboratory compared to ground control was observed. (2) Human interferon preparations and interferon inducers placed in space laboratory at room temperature for 7 days maintained their biological activity. (3) A decrease of induced interferon production and natural killer activity of lymphocytes isolated from peripheral blood of cosmonauts was observed on the 1st day on Earth after 7-days spaceflight.

Results of space experiment program "Interferon". I. Production of interferon in vitro by human lymphocytes aboard space laboratory Solyut-6 ("Interferon I") and influence of space flight on lymphocyte functions of cosmonauts ("Interferon III").

The results of the biological space experiment "Interferon" performed by two international cosmonaut crews aboard the space laboratory Solyut-6 are reported. Human lymphocytes separated from the blood of healthy donors and placed into "Interferon I" equipment could be kept for 7 days in suspension culture under spaceflight conditions. Interferon production could be induced in human lymphocytes by preparations of different origin, such as virus, synthetic polyribonucleotides, bacterial protein and plant pigment. An increased lymphocyte interferon production was observed in the space laboratory as compared to the ground control. A decrease of induced interferon production and natural killer cell activity was observed in the cosmonauts' lymphocytes on the 1st day on Earth after 7 days spaceflight.

Results of space experiment program "Interferon". II. Influence of spaceflight conditions on the activity of interferon preparations and interferon inducers ("Interferon II").

The influence of spaceflight conditions on the biological activity of HuIFN-alpha preparations (lyophilized, in solution and in ointment) and interferon inducers was studied. In antiviral activity no difference was observed between the samples kept aboard the spaceship and the controls kept under ground conditions. The interferon inducers poly I:C, poly G:C and gossipol placed in the space laboratory for 7 days maintained their interferon-inducing capacity. The circulating interferon level in mice was the same irrespective of the induction being performed with flight or ground-control samples of inducers.

Growth and cell structure of Proteus vulgaris when cultivated in weightlessness in the Cytos apparatus.

Growth data and electron-microscopic analyses are presented for Proteus vulgaris cultures which were grown during space flight in polyethylene packets in a semisolid medium with Tryptose for 96 h. In the suboptimal culture conditions the growth and morphological characteristics of the flight and ground control variants were nearly identical, but we were able to detect a number of differences between the cellular ultrastructure of these variants. These differences testify to changes in the bacterial cell metabolism during space flight.