Man's Immunity - in Vitro Aspects

Description

The objective of this Skylab experiment was to assay changes in humoral and cellular immunity as reflected by the concentrations of plasma and blood cell proteins, blastoid transformations and synthesis of ribonucleic (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic (DNA) acids by the lymphocytes. The experiment obtained preflight baselines (21, 7 and 1 days before launch), which were indications of normal metabolism, from the crewmen and a ground control group composed of three men physically similar to the crewmen. The group served as ground controls during the flight. Inflight blood samples were taken four times from each crewman during the SL-2 (73-032A) mission and eight times from each crewman during the SL-3 and SL-4 missions. Seven days and 21 days after recovery, samples were taken from each crewman. Information was compared with preflight baselines, inflight profiles and with data from the control group to detect any significant deviations. Blood was analyzed for kinetics of lumphocyte RNA and DNA, RNA and DNA distribution in lymphocytes, observation of blastoid formation, lymphocyte morpology and antigen response, lymphocyte functional response to antigen, quantitation of plasma constituents, presence of immunoglobulins, albumin and globulin concentration, and total plasma protein. The inflight blood collection system provided the capability to draw venous blood and centifuge the samples for preservation. The blood samples were frozen and returned to earth for postflight anaylsis.