Prolonged Fixation Studies For Spaceflight

Abstract

Observation of subtle or early signs of change in spaceflight induced alterations on living systems require precise methods of sampling. In-flight analysis would be preferable but constraints of time, equipment, personnel and cost dictate the necessity for prolonged storage before retrieval. Because of this, various tissues have been stored in fixatives and combinations of fixatives and observed at various time intervals. High pressure and the effect of buffer alone have also been tried.Of the various tissues embedded, muscle, cartilage and liver, liver has been the most extensively studied because it contains large numbers of organelles common to all tissues (Fig. 1).