Changes of the body functions during long-term hypokinesia

Prolonged hypokinesis (100-170 days) studied in 2000 rats kept in cages limiting their mobility provoked considerable changes in the gaseous and energetic metabolism: an elevation of the total gaseous metabolism and of the rate of O2 requirement by the muscles (in the late periods of hypokinesis) and a change in the intensity of tissue respiration of the liver and myocardium. There also proved to be a reduction in the level of phosphorylation and separation of oxidative phosphorylation in the myocardium, liver, and partially in the skeletal muscle. Prolonged hypokinesia led to changes in tissue metabolism: a disturbance of development of the animals, a marked delay and an increase in the weight of the organism and the muscular system, and disturbances of the mineral and protein metabolism. Prolonged hypokinesis also lead to exhaustion of the hypothalamus-hypophysis-adrenal cortex system