Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase in the Perivascular Adipose Tissue

Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) is a special type of ectopic fat depot that adheres to most vasculatures. PVAT has been shown to exert anticontractile effects on the blood vessels and confers protective effects against metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. PVAT plays a critical role in vascular homeostasis via secreting adipokine, hormones, and growth factors. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS; also known as NOS3 or NOSIII) is well-known for its role in the generation of vasoprotective nitric oxide (NO). eNOS is primarily expressed, but not exclusively, in endothelial cells, while recent studies have identified its expression in both adipocytes and endothelial cells of PVAT. PVAT eNOS is an important player in the protective role of PVAT. Different studies have demonstrated that, under obesity-linked metabolic diseases, PVAT eNOS may be even more important than endothelium eNOS in obesity-induced vascular dysfunction, which may be attributed to certain PVAT eNOS-specific functions. In this review, we summarized the current understanding of eNOS expression in PVAT, its function under both physiological and pathological conditions and listed out a few pharmacological interventions of interest that target eNOS in PVAT.