Jun-ichi Kiraku (1), Tetsuya Nakamura (1,*), Takao Sugiyama (2), Naoyuki
Takahashi (3), Makoto Kuro-o (4), Jun Fujii (2) and Ryozo Nagai (1)
(1) Second Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University School of
Medicine, Maebashi 371-8511, Japan
(2) The Institute for Adult Diseases Asahi Life Foundation, Tokyo 160-0023,
Japan
(3) Third Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo University, Tokyo 113-8655,
Japan
(4) The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas,
Texas, USA
(*) To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract: We studied the role of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis
in amelioration of blood pressure elevation during dietary salt loading
in transgenic mice overexpressing sodium proton exchanger. Systolic blood
pressure rose after starting salt loading only in the high-salt group of
transgenic mice. However, this elevation of blood pressure was not continued.
Urinary excretion of inorganic nitrite and nitrate in the high-salt group
of transgenic mice was significantly higher than in the high-salt group
of control mice. These results suggest that increased NO synthesis in response
to salt loading is one of the anti-hypertensive mechanisms in transgenic
mice overexpressing sodium proton exchanger.
Keywords: Nitric oxide, Hypertension, Sodium-proton exchanger