Interleukin (IL)-1beta is an important early mediator of inflammation in pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells. We previously reported that a geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor elevated basal levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and enhanced IL-1beta-mediated induction, suggesting that Rac or Rho small G proteins are candidates for antagonism of such induction. In this study, overex...

The roles of AP-1 and NFkappaB in the regulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA expression induced by the combination of lipopolysaccharide and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (LT) in C6 cells were examined in the present study. The iNOS mRNA level and NO release were increased by several cytokines alone or combination treatments at 24 hr. LT-induced iNOS mRNA level was maximally in...

The goal of this study was to interrogate the role of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in the late phase of ischemic preconditioning (PC) in vivo. A total of 321 mice were used. Wild-type mice preconditioned 24 h earlier with six cycles of 4-min coronary occlusion/4-min reperfusion exhibited a significant (P < 0.05) increase in myocardial iNOS protein content, iNOS activity (assessed as calcium-ind...

BACKGROUND Vascular endothelium participates in the control of vascular tone and function via the release of nitric oxide (NO) by the endothelial-type NO synthase (eNOS). Inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression in endothelial cells occurs in many clinical conditions following induction by lipopolysaccharide or cytokines and generates large quantities of NO that result in endothelial cell activa...

Osteoarthritic (OA) chondrocytes are shown to express inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) which produces high concentrations of nitric oxide (NO), particularly when stimulated with proinflammatory cytokines. NO is involved in OA cartilage degradation. On the other hand, c-Jun N-terminal Kinase (JNK) pathway mediates the activation and transcription of c-Jun, which is required for interleukin...

OBJECTIVE We investigated the role of inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in intimal thickening with exposure to cigarette smoke (CS). METHODS AND RESULTS Intimal thickening in wild-type (WT) and iNOS-deficient (iNOS-/-) mice subjected to CS exposure was induced by placement of a cuff around the carotid artery. CS exposure in WT mice was associated with increased arterial iNOS expression, superoxide...

The inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene plays an important role in renal diseases. Transcription is the principal mode of regulation. This study explores the role of acetylation in cytokine-mediated iNOS induction in cultured murine mesangial cells and RAW 264.7 cells. Nitric oxide production was measured by the Griess reaction. The activity of the iNOS promoter and a nuclear factor-kap...

PURPOSE The purposes of this study were to identify iNOS-producing retinal cells and to determine whether lack of iNOS facilitates MCMV spread and replication in the retina. METHODS Immunosuppressed (IS) iNOS(-/-) mice or C57BL/6 (wild-type) mice were inoculated with 5 x 10(4) PFU of MCMV K181 strain (K181) via the supraciliary route. Injected eyes were collected at several times after inocul...

Helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach causes peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. Despite eliciting a vigorous immune response, the bacterium persists for the life of the host. An important antimicrobial mechanism is the production of NO derived from inducible NO synthase (iNOS). We have reported that macrophages can kill H. pylori in vitro by an NO-dependent mechanism, but supraphys...

Previous studies have shown that mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades signal the induction of inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) in glial cells (Bhat, N. R., Zhang, P., Lee, J. C., and Hogan E. L. (1998) J. Neurosci. 18, 1633–1641; Bhat, N. R., Zhang, P., and Bhat, A. N. (1999) J. Neurochem. 72, 472–478). This study further investigates the role of p38 MAPK in the transcriptiona...