AGE & CONTROL OF CUTAN VASOCONSTRICT SKIN COOLING & REG OF ALPHA 2C RECEPTORS

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心，不一定是研究者所在机构。当一个人暴露在寒冷的环境中时，身体通过收缩皮肤中的血管来保存热量。这减少了温暖的血液通过寒冷的皮肤的流动。然而，衰老降低了皮肤血管收缩的能力。这导致老年人在寒冷中有更高的皮肤血流量，使他们更容易失去热量。本项目的目的是研究局部冷却皮肤引起血管收缩的机制。该项目还将探索衰老如何影响这些机制。本研究的目标是1）表征响应于局部皮肤冷却的皮肤血管收缩的神经成分（交感神经与非交感神经）（“冷却的程度和持续时间”），2）确定α 2 C-肾上腺素能受体是否介导局部冷却皮肤中的血管收缩（“α 2受体”），以及3）研究人类衰老如何影响冷却皮肤中的血管收缩反应。我们推测，随着冷却程度和持续时间的增加，老年人冷却皮肤中的血管收缩将逐渐减弱。我们还假设α 2C-肾上腺素能受体参与了局部降温的血管收缩反应，但老年人的反应是迟钝的。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. When a person is exposed to a cold environment, the body conserves heat by constricting blood vessels in the skin. This reduces the flow of warm blood through cold skin. However, aging reduces the ability of the skin's blood vessels to constrict. This causes older individuals to have a higher skin blood flow in the cold and makes them more vulnerable to heat loss. The purpose of this project is to examine the mechanisms responsible for vasoconstriction induced by local cooling of the skin. The project will also explore how aging affects those mechanisms. The goals of this study are to 1) characterize the neural components (sympathetic vs. non-sympathetic) of skin blood vessel constriction in response to localized skin cooling ("Degree and duration of cooling"), 2) determine whether a2C-adrenergic receptors mediate vasoconstriction in locally cooled skin ("a2 Receptors"), and 3) investigate how human aging affects the vasoconstriction response in cooled skin. We hypothesize that vasoconstriction in cooled skin will be increasingly attenuated in older people as the degree and duration of cooling increases. We also hypothesize that the a2C-adrenergic receptors participate in the vasoconstriction response to local cooling, but the response is blunted in older people.