Cardiovascular response to trigeminal nerve stimulation at rest and during exercise in humans: does sex matter?

We sought to investigate the possibility that there are sex differences in the cardiovascular responses to trigeminal nerve stimulation (TGS) with cold exposure to the face at rest and during dynamic exercise. In 9 healthy men (age: 28 ± 3 yr; height: 178 ± 1 cm; weight: 77 ± 8 kg) and 13 women (age 26 ± 5 yr; height 164 ± 3 cm; weight 63 ± 7 kg) beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) and blood pressure were recorded. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), stroke volume (SV), cardiac index (CI), and total vascular resistance index (TVRI) were calculated. TGS was applied for 3 min at rest and in-between 10-min steady-state cycling exercise at a HR of 110 beats/min, the measurements were obtained during the last minute of each period. At rest, TGS increased MAP (men: Δ18 ± 8 mmHg; women: Δ23 ± 8 mmHg; means ± SD), TVRI (men: Δ1.1 ± 0.6 mmHg·l·min·m; women: Δ1.2 ± 1.2 mmHg·l·min·m) and SV (men: Δ19 ± 15 ml; women: Δ16 ± 11 ml) in both groups. CI increased with TGS in women but not in men. However, men presented a bradycardic response to TGS (Δ-11 ± 8 beats/min) that was not significant in women compared with baseline. Cycling exercise increased HR, MAP, SV, and CI and decreased TVRI in men and women. TGS during exercise further increased MAP in men and women and did not change CI in either group. SV and TVRI increased with TGS during exercise only in women. TGS during exercise evoked bradycardia in men (Δ-7 ± 9 beats/min), whereas HR was unchanged in women. Our findings indicate sex differences in TGS-related cardiovascular responses at rest and during exercise.