title: No major impact of skin aging on the response of skin blood flow to a submaximal local thermal stimulus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was undertaken to investigate how aging affects dermal microvascular reactivity in skin areas differentially exposed to sunlight, and therefore to different degrees of photoaging.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed, in young (18-30 years, n = 13) and aged males (≥60 years, n = 13), the thigh, forearm, and forehead's skin vasodilatory response to local heating (LTH) with a LDI. In each subject and at each location, local Tskin was brought from 34°C (baseline) to 39 or 41°C for 30 minutes, to effect submaximal vasodilation, with maximal vasodilation then elicited by further heating to 44°C.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CVCs evaluated at baseline and after maximal vasodilation (CVCmax ) were higher in the forehead than in the two other anatomical locations. On all locations, CVCmax decreased with age but less markedly in the forehead compared to the two other locations. When expressed in % of CVCmax , the plateau increase of CVCs in response to submaximal temperatures (39 and 41°C) did not vary with age, and minimally so with location.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Skin aging, whether intrinsic or combined with photoaging, reduces the maximal vasodilatory capacity of the dermal microcirculation, but not its reactivity to local heating.
authors: Division de Physiopathologie Clinique, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors: Julien
authors: J
authors: Vionnet
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Calero-Romero
authors: Abigaël
authors: A
authors: Heim
authors: Corina
authors: C
authors: Rotaru
authors: Rolf Peter
authors: RP
authors: Engelberger
authors: Benoît
authors: B
authors: Dischl
authors: Bernard
authors: B
authors: Noël
authors: Lucas
authors: L
authors: Liaudet
authors: Bernard
authors: B
authors: Waeber
authors: François
authors: F
authors: Feihl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015595:Skin Aging; D014664:Vasodilation
keywords: NO; aging; cutaneous vascular conductance; laser Doppler imaging; local thermal hyperemia