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Expression of nitric oxide synthase in the spinal cord in C57BL/6J mice with congenital muscular dystrophy
Author(s) -
Phul Ravinder K.,
Smith Margaret E.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4598(200001)23:1<63::aid-mus8>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - spinal cord , muscular dystrophy , nitric oxide synthase , enos , endothelial nos , medicine , endocrinology , congenital muscular dystrophy , population , anatomy , chemistry , biology , nitric oxide , neuroscience , environmental health
Autoradiography with the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor ( 3 H)nitro‐L‐arginine ([ 3 H]L‐NNA) was used to quantify NOS in cervical and lumbar spinal cord in normal and dystrophic mice. A single homogeneous population of binding sites was seen in all subregions of the gray matter in normal mice and in the superficial dorsal horn in dystrophic mice. However, in dystrophic mice, two populations were revealed in the deeper dorsal, intermediate, and ventral subregions. Pronounced immunoreactivity for neuronal NOS (nNOS), and weak immunoreactivity for endothelial NOS (eNOS), were revealed in all subregions in normal and dystrophic mice. Inducible NOS (iNOS) immunoreactivity was negligible in normal mice but intense in the deeper dorsal, intermediate, and ventral subregions in dystrophic mice. The higher affinity ( 3 H)L‐NNA binding site colocalized with nNOS and the lower affinity site with iNOS. It is suggested that expression of iNOS is associated with the pathological changes occurring in congenital muscular dystrophy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 23: 63–72, 2000