TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of microgravity on vestibular development and function in rats
T2 - Genetics and environment
AU - Ronca, April E.
AU - Fritzsch, Bernd
AU - Alberts, Jeffrey R.
AU - Bruce, Laura L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper is contributed to KJBS for a special section on Gravitational Biology organized by Professors In-Ho Choi, Hak Ryul Kim and Sang Dai Park in Korea. This work was funded by NIH grants 2 P01 DC00215 and MH-28355, NASA grant NCC 2-870, and NASA-Ames grant NAG 2-1353.
PY - 2000/9
Y1 - 2000/9
N2 - Our anatomical and behavioral studies of embryonic rats that developed in microgravity suggest that the vestibular sensory system, like the visual system, has genetically mediated processes of development that establish crude connections between the periphery and the brain. Environmental stimuli also regulate connection formation including terminal branch formation and fine-tuning of synaptic contacts. Axons of vestibular sensory neurons from gravistatic as well as linear acceleration receptors reach their targets in both microgravity and normal gravity, suggesting that this is a genetically regulated component of development. However, microgravity exposure delays the development of terminal branches and synapses in gravistatic but not linear acceleration-sensitive neurons and also produces behavioral changes. These latter changes reflect environmentally controlled processes of development.
AB - Our anatomical and behavioral studies of embryonic rats that developed in microgravity suggest that the vestibular sensory system, like the visual system, has genetically mediated processes of development that establish crude connections between the periphery and the brain. Environmental stimuli also regulate connection formation including terminal branch formation and fine-tuning of synaptic contacts. Axons of vestibular sensory neurons from gravistatic as well as linear acceleration receptors reach their targets in both microgravity and normal gravity, suggesting that this is a genetically regulated component of development. However, microgravity exposure delays the development of terminal branches and synapses in gravistatic but not linear acceleration-sensitive neurons and also produces behavioral changes. These latter changes reflect environmentally controlled processes of development.
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U2 - 10.1080/12265071.2000.9647547
DO - 10.1080/12265071.2000.9647547
M3 - Review article
C2 - 12760372
AN - SCOPUS:0007377501
VL - 4
SP - 215
EP - 221
JO - Korean journal of biological sciences
JF - Korean journal of biological sciences
SN - 1226-5071
IS - 3
ER -