Neuronal nitric oxide synthase is expressed in principal cell of
collecting duct..
Wang, Xianhong, Ming Lu, Yongzong Gao,andreas Papapetropoulos, William
C. Sessa, and Wenhui Wang.
1Department of Pharmacology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY
10595, 2Department of Neurosurgery and 3Department of Pharmacology,
Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510
APStracts 5:0114F, 1998.
We used the reverse transcription (RT)-PCR technique and
immunocytochemical methods to determine the expression of endothelial
nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) or neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)
in the cortical collecting duct (CCD) in rats on high K+ diet. The
microdissected CCDs of the rat kidney were lysed and RT-PCR was
carried out using rat nNOS and eNOS gene-specific primers. Southern
analysis showed the presence of mRNA of nNOS but not eNOS in the CCD.
The presence of nNOS in the CCD was further confirmed by light
microscopy. We used the polyclonal nNOS antibody in
immunocytochemical studies of the isolated CCD. We found that
immunoreactivity to nNOS was present in the CCD and heterogeneous
with positive and negative immunostaining. We performed the
immunocytochemical studies in the split-open CCD and found that the
immunoreactivity to nNOS was detected only in principal cells but not
in intercalated cells. We conclude that nNOS is expressed in the rat
CCD in rats on high K+ diet. The presence of nNOS in the CCD is
heterogeneous and mainly located in principal cells.
Received 26 November 1997; accepted in final form 18 June 1998.
APS Manuscript Number F370-7.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Renal Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1998 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 30 July 1998