University doctoral student Brett Wong is making a name for himself in the scientific world. Wong, who is studying physiology, has published a research article on how the body deals with heat stress in this month’s Journal of Physiology. The research also garnered Wong the highest national student research award from the American College of Sports Medicine in May.
“It was a great honor,” Wong said about receiving the award, which is a national competitive award for doctoral students.
Wong’s research, co-authored by former doctoral student Brad Wilkins and Human Physiology Assistant Professor Christopher Minson, has the potential to help diabetics, the elderly and people with multiple sclerosis lower heat stress, which is a health risk if body temperature is too high. Wong said common health problems related to high heat stress include fatigue, lightheadedness and nausea.
Wong, who works in collaboration with the University’s Exercise and Environmental Physiology Laboratories, has studied heat stress and body temperature before, but the award recognized work Wong did on heat stress related to histamine receptors. The primary function of these receptors is to lessen the rate of blood flow to the skin and regulate the body’s temperature.
Wong said he showed that the body’s function for increasing skin blood flow and mediating sweat response, or the vasodilatory pathway, contains a certain histamine receptor (called H1) that can regulate heat stress by its
production of nitric oxide, which is not present in a second histamine receptor (H2) in humans. Essentially, the specific receptors, when paired with the nitric oxide, can regulate and lower body temperature protecting the body from heat stress.
Minson, who helped co-author the research, said the aim is to help people in the long run, but there is a need to learn the basic science first.
“We’ve investigated certain mechanisms that have been around for 75 years but never fully understood; histamine, specifically, is something new for us to study,” Minson said. “We want to know what’s happening in the bodies of healthy people and take that to sick people and see what part is defunct.”
The laboratory uses several tools to measure skin blood
flow. Wong put student volunteers — and himself — into
a water-perfused suit that keeps body temperature at 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
With the suit on, Wong could test the rate of blood flow during heat stress by sending antihistamines through a microdialysis machine and then by observing the changes through the lab’s laser Dopler monitor. He also had a thermometer to measure body temperature.
The extensive procedure and the analysis began in September 2003, Wong said.
John Buckwalter, a chairman on the American College
of Sports Medicine who sat
on the research award committee, said heat regulation and its studies are very important in sports medicine.
“What stood out was the
sophistication of Wong’s paper and specifically his looking at how blood flow is controlled during exercise,” Buckwalter said.
Buckwalter added although the organization says ‘American,’ it’s more of an international competition with many students like Wong vying for the award.
University of Minnesota Professor William Roberts, an ACSM member who finalizes the student research winner, echoed praise for Wong’s research.
“This is a pretty competitive award,” Roberts said. “Hopefully this will further his studies and can help improve health
in exercise.”
Furthering his studies is what Wong has in mind. Wong said he plans to finish up his doctorate, and from there, continue research and teach in a University setting.

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