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Vascular biology

Nitric oxide caught in traffic

Nature volume 491, pages 344–345 (2012)Cite this article

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Nitric oxide is a vital signalling molecule that controls blood flow and pressure. Unexpectedly, a redox switch in the protein haemoglobin α within endothelial cells regulates this molecule's diffusion in blood vessels. See Letter p.473

Haemoglobin is best known for mediating oxygen delivery by erythrocytes (red blood cells). Nonetheless, low concentrations of this protein are expressed in other cells, such as human lung epithelial cells2. In addition, over the past 15 years several primordial globins— including neuroglobin and cytoglobin — have been discovered that are expressed in various non-erythrocytic organs such as the brain, retina, endocrine organs and vascular smooth muscle. Functions that are being explored for these proteins include mediating electron-transfer reactions (such as the reduction of the enzyme cytochrome c and nitrite (NO2−) reduction) and nitric oxide (NO) scavenging reactions3,4. For instance, flavohaemoglobins and myoglobin have been proposed4,5 to limit NO signalling by converting it to nitrate (NO3−) in a dioxygenation reaction. A role for haemoglobin in NO-scavenging reactions is appealing on theoretical grounds because these reactions are fast and can occur at the low globin concentrations found in cells.

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Figure 1: Regulation of nitric oxide (NO) diffusion by cytochrome b5 reductase 3.

Notes

  1. *This article and the paper under discussion1 were published online on 31 October 2012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark T. Gladwin is at the Vascular Medicine Institute and the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.,

    Mark T. Gladwin

  2. Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro is in the Department of Physics and the Translational Science Center, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109, USA.,

    Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro

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  1. Mark T. Gladwin
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  2. Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro
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Correspondence to Mark T. Gladwin.

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Gladwin, M., Kim-Shapiro, D. Nitric oxide caught in traffic. Nature 491, 344–345 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11640

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