Epidemiological studies have shown increased incidence of hypertension and coronary artery disease in growth-restricted fetuses during their adult life. A novel animal model was used to test the hypothesis regarding the role of an abnormal uterine environment in fetal programming of adult vascular dysfunction. Mice lacking a functional endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3-/-KO, where KO is k...

Nitric oxide (NO) functions principally as a diffusible paracrine effector. The exception is in cardiomyocytes where both NO synthases (NOS) and target proteins coexist, allowing NO to work in an autocrine/intracrine fashion. However, the most abundant myocyte isoform (NOS3) is far more expressed in vascular endothelium; thus, the in vivo contribution of myocyte-NOS3 remains less clear. The pre...

Longo, Monica, Venu Jain, Yuri P. Vedernikov, Radek Bukowski, Robert E. Garfield, Gary D. Hankins, Garland D. Anderson, and George R. Saade. Fetal origins of adult vascular dysfunction in mice lacking endothelial nitric oxide synthase. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 288: R1114–R1121, 2005. First published December 30, 2004; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00367.2004.— Epidemiological studies have s...

Two consecutive experiments determined whether disruption of the endothelial nitric oxide synthases (NOS) gene (Nos3) affects ovulation, fertilization, implantation, and embryo development. In the first trial, Nos3-knockout mice (groups Nos3(-/-)) and wild-type mice (groups Nos3(+/+)) showed significant differences in mean number of corpora lutea (9.7+/-1.2 in Nos3(-/-) versus 14.2+/-1.2 in Nos...

The Nos3-knockout mouse, deficient for endothelial constitutive nitric oxide synthase (NOS3), is affected by a reduction in the number and weight of the embryos and constitutes a good model for some features of preeclampsia and intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). Deficiencies in conceptus growth and survival may result from factors inherent in the embryo itself or from deficiencies in uteri...

Nitric oxide synthase-3 (NOS3) has recently been shown to promote endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in the developing atrioventricular (AV) canal. The present study was aimed to investigate the role of NOS3 in embryonic development of AV valves. We hypothesized that NOS3 promotes embryonic development of AV valves via EndMT. To test this hypothesis, morphological and functional anal...

Human endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) gene polymorphism at Exon 7 (Glu298Asp) has been linked to vascular endothelial dysfunction, but the mechanisms are not defined. Shear is a key modulator of NOS3 function in vivo and association with caveolae is important for the control of NOS3 protein activity. Here we tested the hypothesis that altered enrichment of NOS3 in the caveolar membrane...

OBJECTIVES Despite advances in resuscitation methods, survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remains low, at least in part, due to postcardiac arrest circulatory and neurologic failure. To elucidate the role of nitric oxide (NO) in the recovery from cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), we studied the impact of NO synthase (NOS3)/cGMP signaling on cardiac and neurologic...

OBJECTIVE Recent studies indicate that endothelial type nitric oxide synthase (NOS3) modulates cardiac systolic and diastolic function and the inotropic responsiveness to beta-adrenergic agonists, and may affect myocardial oxygen consumption. Although NOS3 is a constitutive protein, its levels of expression can be modified by various physiological and pathophysiological stimuli. We investigated...

AIMS Hypoplastic coronary artery disease is a rare congenital abnormality that is associated with sudden cardiac death. However, molecular mechanisms responsible for this disease are not clear. The aim of the present study was to assess the role of nitric oxide synthase-3 (NOS3) in the pathogenesis of hypoplastic coronary arteries. METHODS AND RESULTS Wild-type (WT), NOS3(-/-), and a novel ca...