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Erythrocyte nitric oxide metabolism in patients with chronic renal failure
1Department of Biochemistry, Ankara University Medical Faculty, Turkey. durak@dialup.ankara.edu.tr
Aims:
This study aims to investigate arginine-nitric oxide pathway in chronic renal failure (CRF) and to establish erythrocyte nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and arginase (ARG) activities in patients with CRF.
Materials And Methods:
NOS and ARG activities were measured in erythrocytes from 30 patients with CRF and 12-control subjects.
Results:
Erythrocyte NOS activity was found to be significantly lower and ARG activity higher in patients with CRF compared with controls. No differences were, however, found between patients with and without hemodialysis. A negative correlation (r = -0.7) was established between ARG and NOS activities in erythrocytes from patients.
Conclusions:
Results suggest that erythrocyte NO production is diminished in patients with CRF, possibly due to decreased NOS and increased ARG activities.