UO study is first to link histamine receptors to h...( EUGENE Ore. -- Brett Wong is on a miss...)

The award-winning University of Oregon doctoral degree student's research is the first to identify histamine receptors as contributing to increased blood flow during heat stress. Skin blood flow is a key factor in compensating for exposure to prolonged heat waves.

"These are the same receptors that are involved in seasonal allergies for which people take antihistamines," says Wong, who is the lead author on an article describing his findings in the November issue of the Journal of Physiology. Co-authors are Brad W. Wilkins, research associate, and Christopher Minson, assistant professor of human physiology and co-director of the UO Exercise and Environmental Physiology Laboratories.

Theirs is the first study designed to examine a potential role for histamine receptors in skin blood flow in humans. They tested the H1 and H2 histamine receptors and found that only the H1 receptor was involved in skin blood flow changes. The National Institutes of Health (Heart, Lung and Blood Institute) funded the study.

"Many deaths in the Midwest have been associated with an inability to increase skin blood flow and regulate body temperature," Wong says. "If we can understand the basic science behind increasing skin blood flow in healthy young individuals, we'll be able to help at-risk populations."

Led by Wong, the UO research team outfitted 11 human subjects in water-perfused suits and increased their core body temperature to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He threaded four hollow microfibers into the skin on their forearms and used microdialysis to target doses of nitric oxide or two types of antihistamines. Laser-Doppler flowmetry (LDF) wa
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Contact: Melody Ward Leslie
mleslie@uoregon.edu
541-346-2060
University of Oregon
9-Nov-2004