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Role of the nitric oxide pathway and the endocannabinoid system in neurogenic relaxation of corpus cavernosum from biliary cirrhotic rats.

ABSTRACT: Relaxation of corpus cavernosum, which is mediated by nitric oxide (NO) released from non-adrenergic non-cholinergic (NANC) neurotransmission, is critical for inducing penile erection and can be affected by many pathophysiological conditions. However, the peripheral effect of liver cirrhosis on erectile function is as yet unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of biliary cirrhosis on NANC-mediated relaxation of rat corpus cavernosum and the possible roles of endocannabinoid and nitric oxide systems in this model.Cirrhosis was induced by bile duct ligation. Controls underwent sham operation. Four weeks later, strips of corpus cavernosum were mounted in a standard organ bath and NANC-mediated relaxations were obtained by applying electrical field stimulation.The NANC-mediated relaxation was enhanced in corporal strips from cirrhotic animals. Anandamide potentiated the relaxations in both groups. Either AM251 (CB(1) antagonist) or capsazepine (vanilloid VR(1) antagonist), but not AM630 (CB(2) antagonist), prevented the enhanced relaxations of cirrhotic strips. Either the non-selective NOS inhibitor L-NAME or the selective neuronal NOS inhibitor L-NPA inhibited relaxations in both groups, but cirrhotic groups were more resistant to the inhibitory effects of these agents. Relaxations to sodium nitroprusside (NO donor) were similar in tissues from the two groups.Cirrhosis potentiates the neurogenic relaxation of rat corpus cavernosum probably via the NO pathway and involving cannabinoid CB(1) and vanilloid VR(1) receptors.

SUBMITTER: Ghasemi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2013996 | biostudies-other | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Of all the essential nutrients, nitrogen is the one most often limiting for plant growth. Nitrogen can be taken up by plants in two ways. One possibility is through ammonium and nitrate, which are the predominate inorganic forms of nitrogen in soils. The second possibility is the uptake of air-born nitrogen through plant-associated mircoorganisms in root nodules. The majority of plants able to form such nitrogen-fixing root nodules are in the legume family Fabaceae. Here we present a third possibility M-bM-^@M-^S a new pathway, termed as nitric oxide (NO)-fixation pathway, which allows plants to fix atmospheric NO and to use it for better growth and development. We identified non-symbiotic hemoglobin class 1 (AtGLB1) and class 2 (AtGLB2) as key proteins of the NO-fixation pathway. In an NO enriched environment NO-fixation is enhanced considerably in plants overexpressing AtGLB1 or AtGLB2 genes. NO uptake resulted in four-fold higher nitrate levels in these plants compared to NO-treated wild-type plants. Correspondingly, the growth parameters like rosettes size and weight, vegetative shoot thickness and also seed yield were 25%, 40%, 30%, and 20% higher, respectively, in the overexpression lines in comparison to wild-type plants. Our results highlight the existence of a NO-fixing pathway in plants. We demonstrated that plant non-symbiotic hemoglobin proteins can fix atmospheric NO and convert it to nitrate, which is further introduced into the N-metabolism. We assume that our results might provide new insights into the field of crop science research and that the NO-fixation capability might serve as a new economically important breeding trait for enhancing biomass, fruit, and seed production. Modifying this pathway might be a promising approach for better and more environment-friendly supply of nitrogen. For example crop plant hemoglobin proteins could be improved for their NO-fixing capability and their expression levels could be increased. WT-Arabidopsis thaliana plants were fumigated with Ambient NO and 3 ppm NO air in three completely independent biological experiments. Total RNA was isolated from four-week old rosette leaves of these plants to determine the gene expression signature of each samples using Agilent one-color microarray. Differences in the gene expression signatures between Ambient NO and 3 ppm NO treated samples were analyzed to see the effect of NO fumigation on the WT Arabidopsis plants at the transcript level.

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Role of the nitric oxide pathway and the endocannabinoid system in neurogenic relaxation of corpus cavernosum from biliary cirrhotic rats.

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