EXPERIMENTAL and MOLECULAR MEDICINE, Vol. 44, No. 10, 594-602, October 2012 Increased arginase II activity contributes to endothelial dysfunction through endothelial nitric oxide synthase uncoupling in aged mice Woosung Shin1, Dan E. Berkowitz2,3 ArgII. These results might be associated with and Sungwoo Ryoo1,4 increased L-arginine bioavailability. Collectively, these results suggest that ArgII may be a valuable 1Department of Biology target in age-dependent vascular diseases. College of Natural Sciences Kangwon National University Keywords: aging; arginase II; endothelial nitric oxide Chuncheon 200-701, Korea synthase uncoupling; small interfering RNA; vascular 2Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine diseases 3Department of Biomedical Engineering Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Baltimore, MD 21287, USA Introduction 4Corresponding author: Tel, 82-33-250-8534; Fax, 82-33-251-3990; E-mail,
[email protected] Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of http://dx.doi.org/10.3858/emm.2012.44.10.068 morbidity and mortality in both industrialized and developing countries. Despite effective treatments Accepted 27 July 2012 for several established cardiovascular risk factors, Available Online 2 August 2012 such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, the incidence of cardiovascular disease is predicted Abbreviations: ABH, 2 (S)-amino-6-boronohexanoic acid; Ach, to increases as the population ages. Characteristic acetylcholine; Arg I, arginase I; ArgII, arginase II; DAF, 4-amino- events in the aging cardiovascular system include 5-methylamino-2', 7'-difluorescein; DHE, dihydroethidium; L-arg, vascular stiffness (Meaume et al., 2001), enhanced G L-arginine; L-NAME, L-N -nitroarginine methyl ester; MnTBAP, Mn reactive oxygen species (ROS) production (Finkel (III)tetrakis (4-benzoic acid) porphyrin chloride; ns, not significant; and Holbrook, 2000; Brandes et al., 2005), and ROS, reactive oxygen species; siArgII, siRNA to arginase II decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability (Adler et al., 2003; Csiszar et al., 2008).