Title:Structure, Distribution, Regulation, and Function of Splice Variant
Isoforms of Nitric Oxide Synthase Family in the Nervous System
Volume: 23
Issue: 8
Author(s): Nasrin Hosseini*, Masoumeh Kourosh-Arami*, Shabnam Nadjafi and Behnaz Ashtari
Affiliation:
- Neuroscience Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Neuroscience,
School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Keywords:
Nitric oxide synthase, endothelial NOS, neuronal NOS, inducible NOS, isoform subtype, nitric oxide.
Abstract: Nitric oxide (NO) is a small molecule produced by nitric oxide synthase (NOS) with various
physio-pathological functions in the body. There are three main NOS isoforms, including the endothelial
(eNOS), inducible (iNOS), and neuronal NOS (nNOS), that exist in the peripheral organs and nervous
systems of humans and rodents. Moreover, NOS includes other identified NOS isoforms, such as
retinal Muller glial cells (mNOS), mitochondrial (mtNOS), penile (PnNOS), testis-specific (TnNOS),
and invertebrate Drosophila NOS (dNOS), which are the lesser-known types. It is proposed that the
versatile functions of NOS isoforms depend on various NOS splice variant subtypes and their expression
in the neural (e.g., brain, and spinal cord) and non-neuronal tissues (e.g., lung, kidney, liver, and
GI tract). Therefore, this review summarizes the NOS subtypes, splice variants, targeted splicing expression
in the body, and their proposed physio-pathological functions. At last, alternative NOS subtypes
and isoforms, which have previously received scant attention, will be addressed in this article.
