1. To NO or not to NO: 'where?' is the question
- Author
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Govers, R, Oess, S, Nutrition, obésité et risque thrombotique (NORT), and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)
- Subjects
MESH: Signal Transduction ,MESH: Cell Nucleus ,MESH: Humans ,MESH: Molecular Sequence Data ,MESH: Models, Biological ,MESH: Reactive Oxygen Species ,[SDV.BBM.BM]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biochemistry, Molecular Biology/Molecular biology ,MESH: Amino Acid Sequence ,[SDV.BC.BC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Cellular Biology/Subcellular Processes [q-bio.SC] ,MESH: Amino Acid Motifs ,MESH: Protein Structure, Tertiary ,MESH: Golgi Apparatus ,MESH: Nitric Oxide ,MESH: Cell Communication ,MESH: Nitric Oxide Synthase ,MESH: Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ,MESH: Animals ,[SDV.BBM.BC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biochemistry, Molecular Biology/Biochemistry [q-bio.BM] ,[SDV.AEN]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Food and Nutrition ,MESH: Nitric Oxide Synthase Type III - Abstract
International audience; Nitric oxide (NO) is a gaseous radical with unique biological functions essential for the cardiovascular system, host defense and neuro-transmission. For two decades it was thought that NO was able to diffuse freely across relatively long distances and to traverse major parts of the cell, if not multiple cell layers. However, NO has been proven to be extremely reactive: it reacts with other reactive oxygen species, heavy metals, as well as with cysteine and tyrosine residues in proteins. In accordance, it is now widely accepted that once NO is generated, it is very short-lived and diffuses only over a short distance. This urges for the local production of NO and the localization of NO synthases in the proximity of their downstream targets. This review discusses the highly organized localization of NO synthases, with the endothelial isoform (eNOS) as its main focus, since from this synthase most is known about its subcellular localization and regulation.
- Published
- 2004