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Determination of the maximum rate of eccrine sweat glands’ ion reabsorption using the galvanic skin conductance to local sweat rate relationship

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to develop and describe a simple method to evaluate the rate of ion reabsorption of eccrine sweat glands in human using the measurement of galvanic skin conductance (GSC) and local sweating rate (SR). This purpose was investigated by comparing the SR threshold for increasing GSC with following two criteria of sweat ion reabsorption in earlier studies such as (1) the SR threshold for increasing sweat ion was at approximately 0.2–0.5 mg/cm2/min and (2) exercise heat acclimation improved the sweat ion reabsorption ability and would increase the criteria 1.

Methods

Seven healthy non-heat-acclimated male subjects received passive heat treatment both before and after 7 days of cycling in hot conditions (50 % maximum oxygen uptake, 60 min/day, ambient temperature 32 °C, and 50 % relative humidity).

Results

Subjects became partially heat-acclimated, as evidenced by the decreased end-exercise heart rate (p < 0.01), rate of perceived exhaustion (p < 0.01), and oesophageal temperature (p = 0.07), without alterations in whole-body sweat loss, from the first to the last day of training. As hypothesized, we confirmed that the SR threshold for increasing GSC was near the predicted SR during passive heating before exercise heat acclimation, and increased significantly after training (0.19 ± 0.09–0.32 ± 0.10 mg/cm2/min, p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The reproducibility of sweat ion reabsorption by the eccrine glands in the present study suggests that the relationship between GSC and SR can serve as a new index for assessing the maximum rate of sweat ion reabsorption of eccrine sweat glands in humans.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BWR:

Body weight reduction

GSC:

Galvanic skin conductance

HR:

Heart rate

MAP:

Mean arterial blood pressure

NaCl:

Sodium chloride

RPE:

Rate of perceived exhaustion

SR:

Sweat rate

T b :

Mean body temperature

T es :

Oesophageal temperature

\(\overline{T}_{\text{sk}}\) :

Mean skin temperature

\({{\dot{\text{V}}}\text{O}}_{{ 2 {\text{max}}}}\) :

Maximum oxygen uptake

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our volunteer subjects for participating in this study. NK is supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 23300231) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. TA is supported by a JSPS fellowship (No. 244185) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. TN is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 25242061) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Applied Human Physiology, Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, 3-11 Tsurukabuto, Nada-ku, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Tatsuro Amano & Narihiko Kondo

  2. Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

    Nicola Gerrett & George Havenith

  3. Institute of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Worcester, Worcester, UK

    Nicola Gerrett

  4. Laboratory for Human Performance Research, Osaka International University, Osaka, Japan

    Yoshimitsu Inoue

  5. Institute of Health and Sports Science, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takeshi Nishiyasu

Authors
  1. Tatsuro Amano
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  2. Nicola Gerrett
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  3. Yoshimitsu Inoue
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  4. Takeshi Nishiyasu
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  5. George Havenith
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  6. Narihiko Kondo
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Correspondence to Narihiko Kondo.

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Communicated by Guido Ferretti.

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Amano, T., Gerrett, N., Inoue, Y. et al. Determination of the maximum rate of eccrine sweat glands’ ion reabsorption using the galvanic skin conductance to local sweat rate relationship. Eur J Appl Physiol 116, 281–290 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3275-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3275-9

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