The structural elements of Salmonella typhimurium lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that are able to stimulate peritoneal macrophages to produce increased amounts of prostaglandin E2, ornithine, and citrulline, agents known to modulate immune responses, are described. Two different incomplete lipid A structures which lack the carbohydrate portion, the nonhydroxylated fatty acids lauric acid and myristi...

Previous studies performed in the laboratory have shown that nitrogen narcosis induces a decrease in striatal glutamate and dopamine levels. Although we stimulated the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, an important glutamate receptor required for motor and locomotor activity managed by the striatum, and demonstrated that the receptor was effective when exposed to nitrogen at 3MPa, it was no...

BACKGROUND Seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by autoantibodies binding to citrullinated and homocitrullinated proteins. We wanted to study the expression patterns of these disease-associated protein forms and if the rheumatoid nodule and synovial tissue itself contain biologically active levels of citrullinating peptidyl arginine deiminases 2, 3 and 4 and homocitrullinatio...

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease and it is associated with premature atherosclerosis development. RA patients have multiple factors to develop premature atherosclerosis. Enhanced asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) is considered as a risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis by inducing endothelial dysfunction. The aim of this study was to investiga...

The dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) enzyme family has been the subject of substantial investigation as a potential therapeutic target for the regulation of vascular tension. DDAH enzymes catalyze the conversion of asymmetric N(η),N(η)-dimethylarginine (ADMA) to l-citrulline. Here the influence of substrate and product binding on the dynamic flexibility of DDAH from Pseudomonas ae...

Studies were performed on the internal anal sphincter (IAS) smooth muscle strips obtained from opossums (Didelphis virginiana). Isometric tension and L-arginine levels of the tissues were measured under basal conditions, in the presence of electrical field stimulation (EFS) and after treatment with different concentrations of arginase. For the nonadrenergic noncholinergic nerve stimulation, sho...

NO deficiency is associated with development of hypertension. Defects in the renal citrulline-arginine pathway or arginine reabsorption potentially reduce renal NO in prehypertensive spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Hence, we investigated genes related to the citrulline-arginine pathway or arginine reabsorption, amino acid pools, and renal NO in 2-week-old prehypertensive SHRs. In additi...

We have previously shown that deficient arginine intake increased the rate of endogenous arginine synthesis from proline. In this paper, we report in vivo quantification of the effects of arginine intake on total endogenous arginine synthesis, on the rates of conversion between arginine, citrulline, ornithine, and proline, and on nitric oxide synthesis. Male piglets, with gastric catheters for ...

Recent studies have documented transfer of labeled nitrogen from [2-(15)N]glutamine to citrulline and arginine in fasting human adults. Conversely, in neonates and piglets we have shown no synthesis of arginine from [2-(15)N]glutamate, and others have shown in mice that glutamine is a nitrogen, but not a carbon donor, for arginine synthesis. Therefore, we performed a multitracer study to determ...

Blue light controls the development of sporangiophores in the zygomycete Phycomyces blakesleeanus Burgeff. Light represses the production of microsporangiophores and enhances the development of macrosporangiophores. Inhibition of the biosynthesis of tetrahydrobiopterin, a cofactor of NO synthase, inhibits this photomorphogenesis. Light induces production of citrulline from arginine in the mycel...