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Regional differences in facial skin blood flow responses to thermal stimulation

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The facial skin blood flow (SkBF) shows regional differences in the responses to a given stimulation. The facial SkBFs, especially in the eyelid and nose exhibit unique response to physiological and psychological stimuli, but the mechanisms inducing those regional differences remain unclear. To investigate whether the regional differences in the local control of vasomotion in facial vessels correspond to the regional differences in facial SkBF response, we monitored the relative change of facial SkBF to regional thermal stimulation. We hypothesized that heat stimulation dilates the cutaneous vessels in the eyelid, while cold stimulation constricts those in the nose, which was based on previous findings

Methods:

A thermal stimulator was used to apply temperature increase (from 20 to 40 °C at 2 °C/min) and decrease (from 40 to 20 °C at 2°C/min) in a randomized order to the right eyelid, nose, right cheek, and forehead of 14 healthy young males. The facial SkBF was measured for 10 s using laser-speckle flowgraphy when temperatures of 20 °C, 30 °C, and 40 °C had been applied for 30 s in both trials.

Results

The SkBF in the eyelid did not change significantly during any thermal stimulation, and the nasal SkBF did not decrease significantly during cold stimulation. The SkBFs in the cheek and forehead increased significantly with the applied temperature.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that a large regional variation exists in facial skin blood flow response to local heating or cooling and that the regional variation did not correspond to the unique SkBF responses in the previous studies.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

MAP:

Mean arterial pressure

NO:

Nitric oxide

SE:

Standard error

SD:

Standard deviation

SkBF:

Skin blood flow

TD:

Trial temperature-decrease trial

TI:

Trial temperature-increase trial

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grants: number 15J11556 to A.M. and number 26560396 to N.H.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Medical Nutrition, Faculty of Healthcare, Tokyo Healthcare University, Setagaya, Tokyo, 154-8568, Japan

    Akane Miyaji

  2. Institute for Liberal Arts, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, 152-8852, Japan

    Akane Miyaji & Naoyuki Hayashi

  3. Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro, Tokyo, 152-8852, Japan

    Shohei Hayashi & Naoyuki Hayashi

Authors
  1. Akane Miyaji
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  2. Shohei Hayashi
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  3. Naoyuki Hayashi
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Contributions

AM, SH and NH designed the study, contributed to analysis and interpretation of data, and assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. AM and SH wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. SH have contributed to data collection. AM and NH have contributed to interpretation, and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naoyuki Hayashi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no financial conflict of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Keith Phillip George.

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Miyaji, A., Hayashi, S. & Hayashi, N. Regional differences in facial skin blood flow responses to thermal stimulation. Eur J Appl Physiol 119, 1195–1201 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04109-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04109-6

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