Hormonal changes in antiorthostatic rats

Hypokinesia, especially hypokinesia with negative tilt ('antiorthostatic hypokinesia'), mimics some of the effects of weightlessness. It is shown that cardiac output is increased during early exposure of rats to antiorthostatic hypokinesia. The increase of the stroke volume and of the cardiac output observed in the antiorthostatic hypokinetic rats is probably the consequence of a blood volume shift toward the chest brought forth by head-down positioning of the animals. It is also possible that struggling of the animals to escape from the harness and an increased metabolism contribute to the elevation of cardiac output. In order to study this hypothesis 'stress hormones' were measured in the antiorthostatic rats. Plasma levels of ACTH, corticosterone and prolactin were measured in the arterial blood (0.3 ml) sampled before, during and after hypokinesia from chronic aortic cannulas of the rats.