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The relationship between widespread changes in gravity and cerebral blood flow

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Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Aims and scope

Abstract

Objectives

We investigated the dose–effect relationship between wide changes in gravity from 0 to 2.0 Gz (Δ0.5 Gz) and cerebral blood flow (CBF), to test our hypothesis that CBF has a linear relationship with levels of gravity.

Subjects and methods

Ten healthy seated men were exposed to 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 Gz for 21 min, by using a tilt chair and a short-arm human centrifuge. Steady-state CBF velocity (CBFV) in the middle cerebral artery by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, mean arterial pressure (MAP) at the heart level (MAPHeart), heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output and respiratory conditions were obtained for the last 6 min at each gravity level. Then, MAP in the middle cerebral artery (MAPMCA), reflecting cerebral perfusion pressure, was estimated.

Results

Steady-state CBFV decreased stepwise from 0.5 to 2.0 Gz. Steady-state heart rate, stroke volume, estimated MAPMCA and end-tidal carbon dioxide pressure (ETCO2) also changed stepwise from hypogravity to hypergravity. On the other hand, steady-state MAPHeart and cardiac output did not change significantly. Steady-state CBFV positively and linearly correlated with estimated MAPMCA and ETCO2 in most subjects.

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated stepwise gravity-induced changes in steady-state CBFV from 0.5 to 2.0 Gz despite unchanged steady-state MAPHeart. The combined effects of reduced MAPMCA and ETCO2 likely led to stepwise decreases in CBFV. We caution that a mild increase in gravity from 0 to 2.0 Gz reduces CBF, even if arterial blood pressure at the heart level is maintained.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by The Uehara Memorial Foundation on conducting the experiments, and by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15H05939 on editing the manuscript. This report was previously presented, in part, at “The 85th Annual Meeting of The Japanese Society for Hygiene”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hygiene, Department of Social Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Oyaguchi-Kamimachi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8610, Japan

    Yojiro Ogawa, Ryo Yanagida, Ken Aoki & Ken-ichi Iwasaki

  2. Division of Anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, 173-8610, Japan

    Kaname Ueda

Authors
  1. Yojiro Ogawa
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  2. Ryo Yanagida
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  3. Kaname Ueda
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  4. Ken Aoki
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  5. Ken-ichi Iwasaki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ken-ichi Iwasaki.

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No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.

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Ogawa, Y., Yanagida, R., Ueda, K. et al. The relationship between widespread changes in gravity and cerebral blood flow. Environ Health Prev Med 21, 186–192 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12199-016-0513-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12199-016-0513-7

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