Cooling-induced reduction of skin blood flow results from a reflex increase in sympathetic output and an enhanced vasoconstrictor activity of skin vessels. The latter has been proposed to be mediated by increased reactivity of alpha(2C)-adrenoceptors during cooling in studies with isolated cutaneous vessels in vitro. We have previously shown in studies with tetrodotoxin-treated mice in vivo that reduction of plantar skin blood flow (PSBF) induced by local cooling results primarily from increased reactivity of alpha(2C)-adrenoceptors. In addition, we showed that part of the cooling-induced response was also mediated by alpha(1)-adrenoceptors. However, the mechanisms involved in the cooling-induced responses mediated by alpha(1)-adrenoceptors have not been elucidated. The present study is an investigation seeking to clarify the mechanisms involving alpha(1)-adrenoceptors. Medial plantar arteries were isolated from male ddY mice and changes in vessel diameter were measured in vitro using pressurized arteriography. In vivo measurements of PSBF were performed on artificially ventilated tetrodotoxin treated mice, anaesthetized with pentobarbital sodium, using laser Doppler flowmetry, with the probe positioned above the medial plantar artery. In the in vitro studies with isolated plantar arteries, cooling from 37 to 28 degrees C did not affect the constrictor potency of phenylephrine, an alpha(1)-adrenoceptor agonist, and the threshold concentration to evoke constriction was rather higher at 28 degrees C than it was at 37 degrees C. The cooling also suppressed the constrictor efficacy of UK14,304, an alpha(2)-adrenoceptor agonist. In contrast, cooling the air temperature around the foot from 25 to 10 degrees C in vivo decreased PSBF, which was significantly inhibited by phentolamine, an alpha-adrenoceptor antagonist, although MK-912, an alpha(2C)-adrenoceptor antagonist, had no effect on it. These results suggest that although alpha(1)-adrenoceptors are involved in cooling-induced reduction of PSBF in mice, the response is unlikely to result from an enhancement of alpha(1)-adrenoceptor-mediated vasoconstriction of plantar arteries during cooling.