[Biological role of carbon monoxide in nervous system function]

Carbon monoxide (CO), like nitric oxide (NO), is a vasodilatating substance. CO acts also as a putative neural retrograde messenger in the nervous system where it has been implicated in the regulation of large number of physiological and pathological processes, including long-term potentiation and depression, learning and memory, pain processing, vasodilatation and myorelaxation, inhibition of platelet aggregation and hormone releasing.