Fujii N, McGarr GW, Amano T, Boulay P, Nishiyasu T, Kenny GP. Does aging alter skin vascular function in humans when spatial variation is considered?
Microcirculation 2021;
29:e12743. [PMID:
34874589 DOI:
10.1111/micc.12743]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2021] [Revised: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Reports evaluating age-related impairments in cutaneous vascular function assessed by either the venoarteriolar reflex (VAR) induced by venous congestion, or post-occlusive reactive hyperemia (PORH) activated by arterial occlusion, have yielded mixed findings. This may be due to region-specific variability that occurs when assessing local cutaneous vascular responses. We evaluated the hypothesis that aging attenuates VAR and PORH responses in forearm skin assessed across four adjacent sites, each separated by ~4 cm to account for inter-site variability.
METHODS
In twenty young (24 ± 4 years, 10 females) and twenty older (60 ± 7 years, 9 females) adults, VAR and PORH were achieved by a 3-min venous occlusion and 5-min arterial occlusion, each induced by inflating a pressure cuff to 45 and 240 mmHg, respectively. Cutaneous blood flow at all skin sites was measured by laser-Doppler flowmetry with the average response from all sites used for between-group comparisons.
RESULTS
VAR and PORH responses were similar between groups with the exception that the time required to achieve peak PORH was delayed in older adults (mean difference of 5.5 ± 4.4 s, p = 0.003, Cohen's d = 0.812).
CONCLUSIONS
We showed that aging had a negligible influence on VAR and PORH responses in forearm skin even when controlling for region-specific variability.
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