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Biosynthesis of Nitric Oxide: An Overview

  • Chapter
Role of Nitric Oxide in Sepsis and ADRS

Part of the book series: Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine ((UICM,volume 24))

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Abstract

Soon after the first reports on mammalian nitric oxide (NO) synthesis in 1987 [1, 2], cytosols of cytokine-activated macrophages were shown to contain an enzymatic activity catalyzing an NADPH-dependent conversion of the amino acid L-arginine to NO [3]. Subsequently, enzymatic NO formation was described for a variety of tissues. Consistent with the apparent involvement of Ca2+ in NO-mediated signal transduction in blood vessels [4] and neurons [5], NO synthesis turned out to require micromolar concentrations of free Ca2+ in endothelial cells [6] and brain [7, 8], whereas enzymatic NO formation occurred in a Ca2+-independent manner in cytokine-activated macrophages [3]. In the meantime our knowledge about this novel biochemical pathway has rapidly grown. The present chapter briefly reviews molecular mechanisms and regulation of NO biosynthesis with special focus on the enzymology of NO-synthesizing enzymes, the NO synthases (NOS).

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  1. B. Mayer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Avenue, 02215, Boston, MA, USA

    M. P. Fink

  2. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Lariboisière University Hospital, 2 rue Ambroise Paré, 75475, Paris Cedex 10, France

    Didier Payen

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Mayer, B. (1995). Biosynthesis of Nitric Oxide: An Overview. In: Fink, M.P., Payen, D. (eds) Role of Nitric Oxide in Sepsis and ADRS. Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine, vol 24. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79920-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79920-4_1

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