Spaceflight Affects Postnatal Development of the Aortic Wall in Rats
Table 1
Body weight and estimated weight and internal diameter of the proximal descending thoracic aorta in the FLT, AGC, and VIV group rats.
Pups number
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
Mean
SE
Body weight (g)
FLT
54.1
31.1
24.5
32.7
43.7
53.9
5.1
AGC
83.0
78.8
71.2
71.4
78.7
81.9
77.5
2.1
VIV
87.4
80.3
81.4
88.8
80.9
78.9
83.0
1.7
Weight of the aorta per cm2 (mg)
FLT
14.2
16.0
13.9
16.4
13.6
10.9
14.2
0.8
AGC
17.1
16.5
23.3
24.1
22.4
16.4
20.0
1.5
VIV
19.5
14.0
14.3
26.4
24.9
20.0
19.9
2.1
Cross-sectional area (mm2)
FLT
0.51
0.46
0.40
0.51
0.46
0.37
0.02
AGC
0.69
0.65
0.84
0.93
0.88
0.68
0.78
0.05
VIV
0.69
0.58
0.57
1.12
0.91
0.74
0.77
0.09
Internal diameter (mm)
FLT
1.20
0.97
0.97
1.05
1.13
1.17
0.04
AGC
1.37
1.33
1.22
1.30
1.32
1.38
1.32
0.02
VIV
1.19
1.39
1.35
1.43
1.24
1.26
1.31
0.04
, , aFLT versus AGC, and bFLT versus VIV. Body weight was measured on the day of the landing. Internal diameter was estimated from circumferential width of the wall strip excised from the proximal descending thoracic aorta. The cross-sectional area was calculated from width and thickness of the wall strip. The diameter is expected to be stretched approximately 50% in situ.
