IMR Press / FBE / Volume 2 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/E108

Frontiers in Bioscience-Elite (FBE) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 2 (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
Cardiovascular responses to cold exposure
Show Less
1 Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA
2 Chongqin Medical University, Chongqin, China

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Elite Ed) 2010, 2(2), 495–503; https://doi.org/10.2741/E108
Published: 1 January 2010
Abstract

The prevalence of hypertension is increased in winter and in cold regions of the world. Cold temperatures make hypertension worse and trigger cardiovascular complications (stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, etc.). Chronic or intermittent exposure to cold causes hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy in animals. The purpose of this review is to provide the recent advances in the mechanistic investigation of cold-induced hypertension (CIH). Cold temperatures increase the activities of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). The SNS initiates CIH via the RAS. Cold exposure suppresses the expression of eNOS and formation of NO, increases the production of endothelin-1 (ET-1), up-regulates ETA receptors, but down-regulates ETB receptors. The roles of these factors and their relations in CIH will be reviewed.

Keywords
Cold-Induced Hypertension
Cold-Induced Cardiac Hypertrophy
Cold
Blood Pressure
Sympathetic Nervous System
Renin-Angiotensin System
Endothelin
Mineralocorticoid Receptor
eNOS
c-Myc
Review
Share
Back to top