Nitric oxide synthase (NOS)-containing mesopontine cholinergic (MPCh) neurons of the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDT) are hypothesized to drive the behavioral states of waking and REM sleep through a tonic increase in firing rate which begins before and is maintained throughout these states. In principle, increased firing could elevate intracellular calcium levels and regulate numerous cell...

The protective effects of sevoflurane post-conditioning against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury (MIRI) have been previously reported. However, the mechanisms responsible for these protective effects remain elusive. In this study, in order to investigate the molecular mechanisms responsible for the protective effects of sevoflurane post-conditioning on isolated rat hearts subjected ...

nucleus accumbens (nac) has been considered as a center for the induction of drug dependence. since a high concentration of the enzyme, nitric oxide synthase (nos) has been found in the nac, and this fact that the role of nitric oxide (no) in acquisition and expression of drug dependence has become clear in recent years, therefore in this study the effects of intraaccumbal injections of l-argin...

Reduced synthesis of nitric oxide (NO) contributes to the endothelial dysfunction and may be related to limited availability of L-arginine, the common substrate of constitutive nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) and cytosolic arginase I and mitochondrial arginase II. To determine whether arginases modulate the endothelial NO synthesis, we investigated the effects of the competitive arginase inhibitor ...

Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity in vivo impedes hypertrophy in the overloaded rat plantaris. We investigated the mechanism for this effect by examining early events leading to muscle growth following 5 or 12d of functional overload. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (~350g) were randomly divided into three treatment groups: Control, L-NAME (N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester; 90mg/kg/d),...

L-arginine is metabolized to nitric oxide (NO) by NO synthase (NOS), or to urea and L-ornithine by arginase. L-ornithine contributes to vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension via metabolism to polyamines and proline. Previously we found that cytokines upregulate both NOS and arginase in pulmonary arterial endothelial cells. We hypothesized that cytokine-induced arginase I and II expressi...

Ischemic preconditioning (IP) is one of the most important endogenous mechanisms that protect the cells against ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. However, the exact molecular mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we showed that changes in the level of agmatine were correlated with ischemic tolerance. Changes in brain edema, infarct volume, level of agmatine, and expression of arginine deca...

Introduction: For centuries, cannabinoids are known to be effective in pain relief. Itch is an unpleasant sensation that provokes a desire to scratch. Since itch and pain are two sensations sharing a lot in common, we aimed to investigate whether the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55,212-2 reduces serotonin-induced scratching behavior and also observe whether modulation of nitric oxide (NO) production...

Refractory wound is a severe complication that leads to limb amputation in diabetes. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) plays a key role in normal wound repair but is uncoupled in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced type 1 diabetes because of reduced cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (BH(4)). We tested the hypothesis that overexpression of GTP cyclohydrolase I (GTPCH I), the rate-limiting enzyme for ...