NON-ANDRENERGIC MECHANISMS OF CUTANEOUS VASOCONSTRICTION IN YOUNG & AGED SKIN

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。这减少了通过寒冷的温暖血液的流动。然而，衰老会损害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。本研究的目的是研究皮肤中的一种特殊酶，Rho激酶和活性氧（ROS）是否有助于皮肤血管收缩，以响应局部皮肤冷却，以及这些贡献如何随着衰老而变化。我们假设：1）ROS和Rho激酶都有助于年轻人和老年人的血管收缩，2）由于衰老过程，ROS和Rho激酶在老年人的血管收缩中占更大的比例。

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. However, aging impairs 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 goal of this study is to investigate whether a particular enzyme in the skin, Rho kinase, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to skin vasoconstriction in response to local skin cooling and how those contributions may change with aging. We hypothesize that 1) both ROS and Rho kinase contribute to vasoconstriction in young and older people, and 2) ROS and Rho kinase contribute to a greater portion of vasoconstriction in older people as a result of the aging process.