Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
5
pubmed:dateCreated
1976-2-9
pubmed:abstractText
Man sweats on his palms and the soles of his feet in response to stress and exercise, but not in response to heat. Several functions have been proposed for this type of sweating: increasing friction between skin and substrate; increasing the toughness of the skin; and increasing tactile sensitivity. This study uses a comparative approach to evaluate the role of footpad sweating on increasing friction, utilizing a variety of mammals which possess sweat glands on their footpads (rat, tenrec, hyrax, and dog). We found that all of these animals sweat on their paws while running. Blocking this sweating with atropine sulfate dramatically decreased the coefficient of static friction between the paw and the tread of an inclined treadmill. A similar dose of atropine sulfate had no effect on the coefficient of static friction in a rabbit, and animal that possesses no sweat glands on its paws. We conclude that an important function of this type of sweating is to help prevent slipping between the paw and sthe substrate during running or climbing, and we postulate that the sweating observed in response to stress may play an important role in preparing an animal for fleeing from stressful situations.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Nov
pubmed:issn
0002-9513
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
229
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1400-2
pubmed:dateRevised
2008-11-21
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1975
pubmed:articleTitle
Sweating on paws and palms: what is its function?
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.