IMR Press / FBS / Volume 2 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/S94

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Mechanisms and controllers of eccrine sweating in humans
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1 Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Nara Women's University Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Nara Japan
2 Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
3 Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, TX

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2010, 2(2), 685–696; https://doi.org/10.2741/S94
Published: 1 January 2010
Abstract

Human body temperature is regulated within a very narrow range. When exposed to hyperthermic conditions, via environmental factors and/or increased metabolism, heat dissipation becomes vital for survival. In humans, the primary mechanism of heat dissipation, particularly when ambient temperature is higher than skin temperature, is evaporative heat loss secondary to sweat secretion from eccrine glands. While the primary controller of sweating is the integration between internal and skin temperatures, a number of non-thermal factors modulate the sweating response. In addition to summarizing the current understanding of the neural pathways from the brain to the sweat gland, as well as responses at the sweat gland, this review will highlight findings pertaining to studies of proposed non-thermal modifiers of sweating, namely, exercise, baroreceptor loading state, and body fluid status. Information from these studies not only provides important insight pertaining to the basic mechanisms of sweating, but also perhaps could be useful towards a greater understanding of potential mechanisms and consequences of disease states as well as aging in altering sweating responses and thus temperature regulation.

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