Arginase shares a common substrate, L-arginine, with nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS). It is thought that arginase, if it is expressed in the endothelium, might play a pivotal role in the regulation of NO-mediated vasodilation by reducing the L-arginine availability to NOS. In the present study, we wanted to determine whether arginase is expressed and active in coronary arterioles and to demons...

OBJECTIVE Arginase stimulates the proliferation of cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs); however, the influence of arginase on VSMC growth in vivo is not known. This study investigated the impact of arginase on cell cycle progression and neointima formation after experimental arterial injury. METHODS AND RESULTS Balloon injury of rat carotid arteries resulted in a sustained increase ...

Experiments were performed to identify arginase isoforms expressed in primary and transformed rodent macrophages and to determine the molecular mechanisms for the previously observed increase in arginase activity in macrophages cultured in hypoxia or anoxia. Results demonstrate the following: 1) mRNA and protein for hepatic-type AI arginase are expressed in primary cultures of rat and mouse per...

Increased catabolism of arginine by arginase is increasingly viewed as an important pathophysiological factor in cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis induced by high cholesterol diets. Whereas previous studies have focused primarily on effects of high cholesterol diets on arginase expression and arginine metabolism in specific blood vessels, there is no information regarding the im...

Cirrhosis leads to an inability of the liver to perform its biochemical functions. It can also lead to hepatocellular carcinoma in which, as we showed lately, arginase isoenzyme pattern changes. The present work presents our results on arginase isoenzymes and their possible role in liver cirrhosis. The study was performed on tissues obtained during liver transplantation from 60 patients with li...

selenium plays an important role in biological system due to its incorporation in glutathione peroxidases and thioredoxin reductase as prosthetic group, the pharmacological studies of synthetic organoseleno-compounds revealed these molecules to be used as antioxidants, enzyme inhibitors, neuroprotectors, antitumor, anti-infectious agents, cytokine inducers and immuno-modulators. the present stu...

Previous studies have reported that levels of serum arginase I are increased in certain diseases. However, the exact association between arginase I and diabetes mellitus (DM) has yet to be determined. The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlation between arginase I activity and DM to determine whether arginase I activity may be used as a diagnostic biomarker for DM. DM was ind...

This study was designed to investigate the role of arginase in regulating myometrial contractions during gestation in the rat. Arginase activity in the myometrium was significantly decreased during the 7th-21st day of gestation, with the lowest value on the 14th day. However, the enzyme activity became significantly higher at term gestation (22nd day) than that in the non-pregnant myometrium. A...

Arginine is an important substrate in health and disease. It is a commonly held view that arginase-1 release from injured erythrocytes and hepatocytes leads to arginine breakdown; however, the true relationship between plasma arginase-1 concentration and activity has remained unaddressed. In the present study, blood was sampled from patients undergoing liver resection, a known cause of hepatocy...

An increase in arginase activity has been associated with the pathophysiology of a number of conditions, including an impairment in nonadrenergic and noncholinergic (NANC) nerve-mediated relaxation of the gastrointestinal smooth muscle. An arginase inhibitor may rectify this condition. We compared the effects of a newly designed arginase inhibitor, 2(S)-amino-6-boronohexanoic acid (ABH), with t...