Endothelial nitric oxide synthase determination

After identification, the next step was to determine how NO was made in the endothelium. As with other bodily substances, NO manufacture involves a pathway that requires other chemical entities. The substrate, or raw material required, is an amino acid (a building block of protein), called L-arginine, henceforth in this book simply arginine. A special enzyme, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), must be present for NO to be fabricated from... 

Busconi, L., and Michel, T. (1993). Endothelial nitric oxide synthase N-terminal myristoylation determines subcellular localization. /. Biol. Chem. 268, 8410-8413. 

O2. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) also produces O2 but production of O2 vs. NO is determined by the amount of fully reduced tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) available, with BH4 suppressing 02 in favor of NO. On a cautionary note, 02 production by many systems may represent a non-physiological activity expressed only when native activity is compromised in some way. 

Liu, J., Hughes, T.E., and Sessa, W.C. (1997). The first 35 amino acids and fatty acylation sites determine the molecular targeting of endothelial nitric oxide synthase into the Golgi region of cells a green fluorescent protein study. J. Cell Biol. 757(7), 1525-1535. 

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