抄録
Female subjects with cold intolerance complain of extreme coldness accompanied with swelling, blanching and numbness of extremities, and many related feelings of discomfort. Some disorders of microcirculation and a remarkable decrease in estrogen followed by menopause have been suspected as pathophysiological causes of cold intolerance. We have investigated the filterability of erythrocytes from premenopausal and postmenopausal subjects with cold intolerance, because disturbed microcirculation in vivo is closely related to the impaired erythrocyte filterability. The mean erythrocyte filterabilities for premenopausal subjects with cold intolerance (84.6±2.2%, n=23) and postmenopausal cases (84.8±2.3%, n=24) were significantly (p<0.001) lower than the filterability of controls (87.7±1.0%, n=9). However, there was no difference in the filterability between the premenopausal and postmenopausal subjects, suggesting that estrogen levels may not play a major role in the pathophysiology of impaired filterability and cold intolerance. Furthermore, we investigated the rheologic effects of oligomeric procyanidins (OPCs) in these subjects, because OPCs show antioxidative actions and improve microcirculation. However, there were no effects of OPCs on filterability. In conclusion, impaired filterability of erythrocytes from subjects with cold intolerance is not related to oxidative stress or lack of estrogen, but possibly to microvascular structure and function in cold intolerance.
