Mechanism of Action of Vitamin P Flavanoid (Rutin) on the Cutaneous Circulation

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Abstract
A quantitative fluorescence photometric method (Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. and Med. 72: 594. 1949) was utilized to obtain time-intensity curves of fluorescein transport across cutaneous capillaries. Vasoactive agents, viz., l-epinephrine, or l-arterenol, injd. intradermally, produced characteristic local vasomotor changes which were influenced by parenterally administered substances such as rutin, ascorbic acid and adrenergic blocking agents. Unanesthetized, physiologically intact albino rabbits served as subjects. The results indicated that rutin produces strong independent cutaneous vasoconstriction and also prolongs epinephrine vasoactivity. It is believed that the former action of rutin best explains its in vivo role. Evidence that rutin and epinephrine do not compete for the same receptor was obtained by administering an adrenergic blocking agent which is without effect on rutin vasoconstriction. It appears that the action of rutin does not depend simply upon a nonspecific antioxidant property, because ascorbic acid in the same dosage produced an opposite response. Arterenol action was only moderately prolonged by rutin but was uninfluenced by ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid was without vasoactivity per se. In the light of these results, effects of vit. P on capillary fragility are discussed in relation to its property of strongly constricting minute cutaneous blood vessels.
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