Several cell types express inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) in response to exogenous insults such as bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or proinflammatory cytokines. For instance, muscular cells treated with LPS and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) respond by increasing the mRNA and protein levels of NOS2, and synthesize large amounts of nitric oxide. We show here that transcriptional inducti...

Sepsis is a severe catabolic condition. The loss of skeletal muscle protein mass is characterized by enhanced release of the amino acids glutamine and arginine, which (in)directly affects interorgan arginine and the related nitric oxide (NO) synthesis. To establish whether changes in muscle amino acid and protein kinetics are regulated by NO synthesized by nitric oxide synthase-2 or -3 (NOS2 or...

High concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) cause DNA damage and apoptosis in many cell types. Thus, regulation of NO synthase (NOS) activity is essential for minimizing effects of cytotoxic and genotoxic nitrogen oxide species. We have shown previously that NO-induced p53 protein accumulation down-regulates basal and cytokine-modulated inducible NOS (NOS2) expression in human cells in vitro. To f...

Part of the inflammatory response in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the upregulation of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) resulting in increased NO production. NO contributes to cell signaling by inducing posttranslational protein modifications. Under pathological conditions there is a shift from the signal transducing actions to the formation of protein tyrosine nitration by secondary pr...

We investigated using the mice role of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in the spinal dorsal horn in herpetic and postherpetic pain, especially allodynia, which was induced by transdermal inoculation of the hind paw with herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1). The virus inoculation induced NOS2 expression in the lumbar dorsal horn of mice with herpetic allodynia, but not postherpetic allodynia. There w...

Neurons and astrocytes are generated sequentially from radial glia. Once neurogenesis is completed, radial glia starts to differentiate into immature astrocytes. Astrocytes then maturate and change their morphology and electrophysiological properties. Neurotrophic cytokines or bone morphogenetic proteins have been identified as inducers of the developmental switch from neurogenesis to astrogene...

Tyrosine nitration is a post-translational protein modification with potentially significant biological implications. In the present study we demonstrate, for the first time, that tyrosine residues of human inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2) can be nitrated by peroxynitrite in vitro, leading to a decreased activity. Moreover, we show that NOS2 expressed in a skeletal muscle from septic pati...

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide (NO) is a mediator of immunity to malaria, and genetic polymorphisms in the promoter of the inducible NO synthase gene (NOS2) could modulate production of NO. We postulated that NOS2 promoter polymorphisms would affect resistance to severe malaria. METHODS We assessed genomic DNA from healthy children and from those diagnosed with malaria from Tanzania (n=47 and n=138,...

Immune control of many intracellular pathogens, including Trypanosoma cruzi, is reported to be dependent on the production of nitric oxide. In this study, we show that mice deficient in inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS or NOS2) exhibit resistance to T. cruzi infection that is comparable to that of wild-type mice. This is the case for two iNOS-deficient mouse strains, Nos2(tm1Lau) and Nos2 ...

UNLABELLED The activity of Nitric Oxide Synthase 2 (NOS2) was found in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) but not in normal mucosa. Molecular changes associated to early carcinogenesis have been found in mucosa near carcinomas, which is considered a model to study field cancerization. The aim of the present study is to analyze NOS2 expression at the histologically normal margins of OSCC. ST...