Definition
Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) is an enzyme which catalyzes the formation of nitric oxide (NO). NO is a free radical gas, which acts as a vasodilator, and is formed from the amino acid arginine. NOS comprises a family of enzymes which were first described in 1989. NOS is present in the human body in three distinct isoforms: neuronal NOS (nNOS) found predominantly in neuronal tissue, inducible NOS (iNOS) being inducible in a wide range of cells and tissues, and endothelial NOS (eNOS) which was first found in vascular endothelial cells.
Description
Three distinct genes for the human NOS isoforms exist, with 51–57% homology between the human isoforms in primary amino acid sequence. The similarity in genomic structure indicates a common ancestral NOS gene. The isoforms are classified by the tissue in which they were originally found, although it is now...
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References and Further Reading
Packer, L. (Ed.). (1996). Nitric oxide, part A: Sources and detection of NO; NO synthase: Sources and detection of NO; NO synthase pt. A (methods in enzymology) (Vol. 268). San Diego: Academic.
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Aldred, S. (2019). Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS). In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_1229-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_1229-2
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