The relative contribution of α- and β-adrenergic sweating during heat exposure and the influence of sex and training status.

Abstract

While human eccrine sweat glands respond to adrenergic agonists, there remains a paucity of information on the factors modulating this response. Thus, we assessed the relative contribution of α- and β-adrenergic sweating during a heat exposure and as a function of individual factors of sex and training status. α- and β-adrenergic sweating was assessed in forty-eight healthy young men (n=35) and women (n=13) including endurance-trained (n=12) and untrained men (n=12) under non-heat exposure (temperate, 25°C; n=17) and heat exposure (hot, 35°C; n=48) conditions using transdermal iontophoresis of phenylephrine (α-adrenergic agonist) and salbutamol (β-adrenergic agonist) on the ventral forearm, respectively. Adrenergic sweating was also measured after iontophoretic administration of atropine (muscarinic receptor antagonist) or saline (control) to evaluate how changes in muscarinic receptor activity modulate the adrenergic response to a heat exposure (n=12). α- and β-adrenergic sweating was augmented in hot compared with temperate conditions (both P≤.014), albeit the relative increase was greater in β (~5.4-fold)- as compared to α (~1.5-fold)-adrenergic-mediated sweating response. However, both α- and β-adrenergic sweating was abolished by atropinization (P=.001). Endurance-trained men showed an augmentation in α- (P=.043) but not β (P=.960)-adrenergic sweating as compared to untrained men. Finally, a greater α- and β-adrenergic sweating response (both P≤.001) was measured in habitually active men than in women. We show that heat exposure augments α-and β-adrenergic sweating differently via mechanisms associated with altered muscarinic receptor activity. Sex and training status modulate this response.