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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 297/3/R546    most recent 00157.2009v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Hodges, G. J. Articles by Shoemaker, J. K. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Hodges, G. J. Articles by Shoemaker, J. K.

REVIEW

ARTICLES

Neuropeptide Y and neurovascular control in skeletal muscle and skin

¹School of Kinesiology, ²Department of Medical Biophysics, ⁴Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario; and ³Department of Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas

Submitted 16 March 2009 ; accepted in final form 30 June 2009

ABSTRACT

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a ubiquitous peptide with multiple effects on energy metabolism, reproduction, neurogenesis, and emotion. In addition, NPY is an important sympathetic neurotransmitter involved in neurovascular regulation. Although early studies suggested that the vasoactive effects of NPY were limited to periods of high stress, there is growing evidence for the involvement of NPY on baseline vasomotor tone and sympathetically evoked vasoconstriction in vivo in both skeletal muscle and the cutaneous circulation. In Sprague-Dawley rat skeletal muscle, Y₁-receptor activation appears to play an important role in the regulation of basal vascular conductance, and this effect is similar in magnitude to the ₁-receptor contribution. Furthermore, under baseline conditions, agonist and receptor-based mechanisms for Y₁-receptor-dependent control of vascular conductance in skeletal muscle are greater in male than female rats. In skin, there is Y₁-receptor-mediated vasoconstriction during whole body, but not local, cooling. As with the NPY system in muscle, this neural effect in skin differs between males and females and in addition, declines with aging. Intriguingly, skin vasodilation to local heating also requires NPY and is currently thought to be acting via a nitric oxide pathway. These studies are establishing further interest in the role of NPY as an important vasoactive agent in muscle and skin, adding to the complexity of neurovascular regulation in these tissues. In this review, we focus on the role of NPY on baseline vasomotor tone in skeletal muscle and skin and how NPY modulates vasomotor tone in response to stress, with the aim of compiling what is currently known, while highlighting some of the more pertinent questions yet to be answered.

skin blood flow; skeletal muscle blood flow; blood flow control; BIBP3226