The Ewha Medical Journal
Ewha Womans University School of Medicine
Original Article

Expression of Constitutive Nitric Oxide Synthase by Gastrointestinal Epithelial Cells

Hoo Jae Han

Copyright ⓒ 1997. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

The present study investgated if constitutive nitric oxide synthase(cNOS), especially neuronal type, is expressed in gastrointestinal epithelial cells of rat. Expression of cNOS was immunohistochemically determined. Some gastric epithelial cells were found to express cNOS. Although less than that by the gastric epithelial cells, cNOS was also found to be expressed by the intestinal epithelial cells. Thus it is possible that constitutive type of nitric oxide synbthase in gastrointestinal epithelial cells may play a role in normal gastrointestinal function.

Keywords: Gastrointestinal epithelium; Constitutive nitric oxide synthase