Cutaneous vascular effects of chronic oral folic acid supplementation in the aged (IRB# 43162)

Principal Investigator: Anna Stanhewicz, M.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 132 Noll Lab University Park, PA

The link below takes you to a questionnaire that you may use to send us information about yourself. Alternatively, you may contact us directly: Susan Slimak at sks31@psu.edu or call 814-863-8556.

General Study Description

We are examining the effects an oral supplement called “folic acid” and its role in peripheral blood vessel dilation. If you are interested in participating, you would be required to come to Noll Lab for up to 6 visits. These visits include one screening visit (including a blood test to check your blood and blood chemistry), 2 experiments, and 2 visits to pick up the oral supplements. You might also choose to participate in a pilot study, which would add one more experiment visit. The experiments for this study use the microdialysis technique. Also, those experiments use whole-body heating with a water-perfused suit.

Microdialysis allows us to locally deliver a small amount of drugs (including amino acids which are building blocks of proteins) directly to your skin’s blood vessels in an area of skin about the size of a nickel. We place a very thin tube about 6x the diameter of a human hair between the superficial layers of skin in your forearm. We do this using aseptic technique and a small needle (smaller than the needle that they use when drawing blood from your arm). During the experiments we will also heat a localized area of skin about the size of a pencil eraser.

Eligibility Criteria

Men and Women
Ages 18-30 or 65-90 years
Non-smoker
No drugs that may alter the function of blood vessels (e.g. heart, blood pressure, and/or cholesterol medications)
No illegal / recreational drugs
Not taking chloramphenicol, cholestyramine, medication for seizures, methotrexate, nitrofurantoin, or pyrimethamine

Women

Not pregnant or breastfeeding
No hormone replacement therapy
Not taking birth control pills, or using patches, shots, or rings

Number of Visits/Time Commitment

You would be required to come to Noll Lab for up to 6 visits. The first visit is for medical screening procedures that last a total of 1.5 hours. The experiment-visits last no longer than 6 hours. On each of two visits you pick up the supplements.

Compensation

Compensation will be provided. We reimburse for gasoline if you live more than 20 miles from our lab.

Sign up!

The link below takes you to a questionnaire that you can use to send us information about yourself. Alternatively, you may contact us directly: Please contact Susan Slimak at sks31@psu.edu or call 814-863-8556.

Questions?

Please contact Susan Slimak at sks31@psu.edu or call 814-863-8556.

This study has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Pennsylvania State University.

Penn State Biomechanics Laboratory