Human recombinant erythropoietin inhibits interleukin-1β-stimulated nitric oxide and cyclic guanosine monophosphate production in cultured rat vascular smooth-muscle cells.

Background.Recently rat vascular smooth-muscle cells (VSMC) have been shown to possess Epo receptor, and respond to various cytokines for producing nitric oxide (NO). In the present study we examined the effect of pharmacological dose of human recombinant erythropoietin (rHuEpo) on the IL-1β-induced NO and cGMP production as well as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in cultured rat VSMC. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]