Skin found to play a role in controlling blood pressure.

Skin found to play a role in controlling blood pressure. Skin plays a surprising role in helping regulate blood pressure and heart rate, according to scientists. While this discovery was made in mice, the researchers believe it is likely to be true also in humans. Skin plays a surprising role in helping regulate blood pressure and heart rate, according to scientists at the University of Cambridge and the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.In a study published in the open access journal eLife, the researchers show that skin -- our largest organ, typically covering two square metres in humans -- helps regulate blood pressure and heart rate in response to changes in the amount of oxygen available in the environment. High blood pressure is associated with cardiovascular disease, such as heart attack and stroke. For the vast majority of cases of high blood pressure, there is no known cause. The condition is often associated with reduced flow of blood through small blood vessels in the skin and other parts of the body, a symptom which can get progressively worse if the hypertension is not treated.