Regional skin wetness perception and its modulation by warm and cold whole-body skin temperatures in people with Multiple Sclerosis
Regional skin wetness perception and its modulation by warm and cold whole-body skin temperatures in people with Multiple Sclerosis
Skin wetness sensing is important for thermal stress resilience. Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) present greater vulnerability to thermal stress; yet, it is unclear whether they present wetness-sensing abnormalities. We investigated the effects of MS on wetness sensing and their modulation with changes in mean skin temperature (Tsk). Twelve participants with MS [5 males (M)/7 females (F); 48.3 ± 10.8 yr; Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) range: 1-7] and 11 healthy controls (4 M/7 F; 47.5 ± 11.3 yr) undertook three trials, during which they performed a quantitative sensory test with either a thermoneutral (30.9°C), warm (34.8°C), or cold (26.5°C) mean Tsk. Participants reported on visual analog scales local wetness perceptions arising from the static and dynamic application of a cold-, neutral-, and warm-wet probe (1.32 cm2; water content: 0.8 mL), to the index finger pad, forearm, and forehead. Data were analyzed for the group-level effect of MS, as well as for its individual variability. Our results indicated that MS did not alter skin wetness sensitivity at a group level, across the skin sites and temperature tested, neither under normothermia nor under conditions of shifted thermal state. However, when taking an individualized approach to profiling wetness-sensing abnormalities in MS, we found that 3 of the 12 participants with MS (i.e., 25% of the sample) presented a reduced wetness sensitivity on multiple skin sites and to different wet stimuli (i.e., cold, neutral, and warm wet). We conclude that some individuals with MS may possess reduced wetness sensitivity; however, this sensory symptom may vary greatly at an individual level. Larger-scale studies are warranted to characterize the mechanisms underlying such individual variability.
body temperature regulation, multiple sclerosis, skin, thermoreceptors, wetness
R648-R660
Christogianni, Aikaterini
696c8a6c-30d6-4fb1-b7e4-70d45997180b
Bibb, Richard
249dd806-b589-48d1-8568-b28b88a8989c
Filtness, Ashleigh
e5f1053c-4a84-4bf5-9586-e88057fca20e
Filingeri, Davide
42502a34-e7e6-4b49-b304-ce2ae0bf7b24
1 November 2022
Christogianni, Aikaterini
696c8a6c-30d6-4fb1-b7e4-70d45997180b
Bibb, Richard
249dd806-b589-48d1-8568-b28b88a8989c
Filtness, Ashleigh
e5f1053c-4a84-4bf5-9586-e88057fca20e
Filingeri, Davide
42502a34-e7e6-4b49-b304-ce2ae0bf7b24
Christogianni, Aikaterini, Bibb, Richard, Filtness, Ashleigh and Filingeri, Davide
(2022)
Regional skin wetness perception and its modulation by warm and cold whole-body skin temperatures in people with Multiple Sclerosis.
American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 323 (5), .
(doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00149.2022).
Abstract
Skin wetness sensing is important for thermal stress resilience. Individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) present greater vulnerability to thermal stress; yet, it is unclear whether they present wetness-sensing abnormalities. We investigated the effects of MS on wetness sensing and their modulation with changes in mean skin temperature (Tsk). Twelve participants with MS [5 males (M)/7 females (F); 48.3 ± 10.8 yr; Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) range: 1-7] and 11 healthy controls (4 M/7 F; 47.5 ± 11.3 yr) undertook three trials, during which they performed a quantitative sensory test with either a thermoneutral (30.9°C), warm (34.8°C), or cold (26.5°C) mean Tsk. Participants reported on visual analog scales local wetness perceptions arising from the static and dynamic application of a cold-, neutral-, and warm-wet probe (1.32 cm2; water content: 0.8 mL), to the index finger pad, forearm, and forehead. Data were analyzed for the group-level effect of MS, as well as for its individual variability. Our results indicated that MS did not alter skin wetness sensitivity at a group level, across the skin sites and temperature tested, neither under normothermia nor under conditions of shifted thermal state. However, when taking an individualized approach to profiling wetness-sensing abnormalities in MS, we found that 3 of the 12 participants with MS (i.e., 25% of the sample) presented a reduced wetness sensitivity on multiple skin sites and to different wet stimuli (i.e., cold, neutral, and warm wet). We conclude that some individuals with MS may possess reduced wetness sensitivity; however, this sensory symptom may vary greatly at an individual level. Larger-scale studies are warranted to characterize the mechanisms underlying such individual variability.
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2022_WetnessMS_AJP
- Accepted Manuscript
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christogianni-et-al-2022-regional-skin-wetness-perception-and-its-modulation-by-warm-and-cold-whole-body-skin
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 25 August 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 19 October 2022
Published date: 1 November 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information: A. C. supported by a PhD Scholarship funded by Loughborough University, UK.
Keywords:
body temperature regulation, multiple sclerosis, skin, thermoreceptors, wetness
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 470280
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/470280
ISSN: 0363-6119
PURE UUID: 85a3f03d-d6aa-46c1-8941-618fb312875e
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Date deposited: 05 Oct 2022 16:43
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:30
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Contributors
Author:
Aikaterini Christogianni
Author:
Richard Bibb
Author:
Ashleigh Filtness
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