Does upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase play a role in hepatic injury?

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and gut ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury cause reversible liver injury. Because nitric oxide (NO) can have both beneficial and deleterious effects in the gastrointestinal tract, and because the role of NO in gut I/R-induced hepatic injury is unknown, this study examined its role in LPS and gut I/R-induced hepatic injury in the rat. Both LPS and gut I/R caused a similar increase in serum hepatocellular enzymes. LPS but not gut I/R caused a significant increase in upregulation of hepatic inducible NO synthase (iNOS) according to quantitative real-time RT-PCR and Western immunoblot analysis. Aminoguanidine, a selective iNOS inhibitor, attenuated LPS-induced hepatic injury and hypotension, but did not prevent gut I/R-induced hepatic injury. In contrast, the non-selective NOS inhibitor N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester aggravated liver damage from both LPS and gut I/R. These data indicate that iNOS plays a role in mediating LPS-induced hepatic injury, but not gut I/R-induced hepatic injury. The data also suggest that the constitutive isoforms of NOS play a hepatoprotective role in both models of hepatic injury.