Does α-adrenergic receptor blockade modulate sweating during incremental exercise in young endurance-trained men?

Purpose: Human eccrine sweat glands respond to α-adrenergic receptor agonists. We recently reported that adrenergic mechanisms contribute to sweating in endurance-trained men during an incremental exercise to volitional fatigue. However, it remains unclear if this response is mediated by α-adrenergic receptor activation.

Methods: Twelve endurance-trained men performed an incremental cycling bout until exhaustion while wearing a water-perfused suit to clamp skin temperature at ~ 34 °C. Bilateral forearm sweat rates were measured wherein the distal area was treated with either 1% terazosin (α-adrenergic receptor antagonist) or saline solution on the opposite limb (Control) via transdermal iontophoresis. We also measured proximal bilateral forearm sweat rate in untreated sites to confirm that no between-limb differences in forearm sweat rate occurred. Once sweat rate returned to pre-exercise resting levels at ~ 20 min postexercise, 0.25% phenylephrine (α-adrenergic receptor agonist) was iontophoretically administered to skin to verify α-adrenergic receptor blockade.

Results: Sweat rates at the proximal untreated right and left forearm sites were similar during exercise (interaction, P = 0.581). Similarly, no effect of terazosin on sweat rate was measured relative to control site (interaction, P = 0.848). Postexercise administration of phenylephrine increased sweat rate at the control site (0.08 ± 0.09 mg cm min), which was suppressed by ~ 90% at the terazosin-treated site (0.01 ± 0.02 mg cm min) (P = 0.026), confirming that α-adrenergic receptor blockade was intact.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate that α-adrenergic receptors located at eccrine sweat glands do not contribute to eccrine sweating during incremental exercise in young endurance-trained men.