This monograph offers an insight into the human and animal immune response in space, as revealed by the results of studies by a team of international scientists carried out over the past 25 years. During an extensive Soviet space exploration programme involving both long- and short-term manned flights, valuable data was obtained on the adaptive changes observed in the human immune system when subjected to extreme conditions, including hypokinesia, isolation and extreme temperatures. The authors are specifically concerned with disorders of bone calcium metabolism provoked by long-term hypokinesia and weightlessness and diseases accompanied by osteoporosis. The book is intended for clinical and theoretical immunologists, physiologists and cell biologists. (synopsis)