Body weight gain, lymphoid organ normalized weight and spleen cellularity in control (C), restrained (R) and hindlimb unloaded (HU) mice at the end of the experiments.

C  =  Control, R  =  Restrained, HU  =  Hindlimb Unloaded.
* p = 0.032 versus R, ¤p = 0.002 versus C.
Body weight gain was calculated with the formula [body weight on day 21 - body weight on day 0 of the treatment]. Normalized weights were calculated with the ratio [organ weight/body weight] for each mouse. The number of splenic nucleated cells was calculated after red blood cell lysis with NH4Cl. Each group was compared to the others. n = 5 mice per group. Differences were found to be statistically significant using an ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc test. HU mice did not gain weight (p = 0.032 versus R, p = 0.002 versus C), while the other groups grew by approximately 7% (R) to 11% (C) in comparison to their initial weight. No significant difference was found between the three experimental groups for lymphoid organ normalized weights. The number of nucleated cells was reduced by 19% and 25%, respectively, in the R and HU mice in comparison to C mice, although these differences were not significant (versus R: p = 0.479; versus HU: p = 0.273). Data are mean values ± SEM.