[Application of the method of acoustic microscopy for the study of eye tissues].

The paper describes the results of evaluation of potentialities of the application of scanning acoustic microscopy, which is still relatively new and as yet uncommon method of biological research, for the supravital study of animal eye structure in species with different eyeball size. Using the eyes of a goat, quail embryo (in situ) and frog tadpole (in vivo) as the examples, it was shown that non-destructive nature of the method used allows for the study of peculiarities of major morphologic structures in the state that is close to the natural one. Some acoustic images are presented showing eye structural elements along with the results of quantitative characteristic of the cornea, sclera and iris.

Effects of space flight on Xenopus laevis larval development.

Fifty-three fertilized Xenopus laevis embryos at early tail bud stage were launched into orbit aboard a Biocosmos satellite and remained in microgravity for 11.5 days. During this period, the embryos hatched and continued to develop as free-living larvae.

[Pseudostroke states in elderly patients].

Clinical characteristics of pseudostroke conditions in connection with the nature of somatic pathology, responsible for those conditions, were investigated in 52 patients. According to the character of somatic pathology all the elder patients were divided into 4 groups: myocardial infarction and progressive heart insufficiency, acute lung and heart insufficiency, inflammatory kidney disorders with signs of renal insufficiency, different intoxications. According to the results of macroscopic brain investigation, there were post-ischaemic cysts.

[The dependence of the differentiation potentials of fragments of the marginal zone in early gastrulas of the clawed toad on their morphogenetic movements].

Using Xenopus early gastrulae, we studied the dependence of differentiation potential of tissue fragments explanted from different regions of the marginal zone on the conditions promoting or preventing convergent-intercalation movements (CIM). Previously it has been shown that CIM are stimulated by surface tension usually produced in the embryo by folding (involuting) edge of cell layer. In the first experimental series, we prevented involution of tissue explanted from the region above blastopore by enveloping it in ectoderm of more advanced developmental stages.

[Body fluid and electrolyte content in rat tissues after space flight in the "Space-2044" spacecraft].

Contents of water, sodium, calcium and magnesium in different tissues of the rats stayed in space for 2 weeks in healing period of bone fracture following graded trauma of calf-bones as well as in the rats exposed to a head-down suspension (HDS) have been studied. In microgravity-exposed animals there were no significant changes in fluid-electrolyte composition of the liver, kidney, myocardium, skin, bone (calf bone). Specific "functional load" on the system of fluid-electrolyte homeostasis in the form of operation and subsequent healing of bone fracture did not result in additional changes in fluid and electrolyte contents of body tissues.