NOS upregulation attenuates vascular endothelial dysfunction in the late phase of ischemic preconditioning in skeletal muscle.

Previously, we have demonstrated a late phase protection of ischemic preconditioning in the microcirculation of cremaster muscle. This microvascular protection was blocked by a non-specific NOS inhibitor. The purpose of present study was to evaluate endothelial function in the terminal arteriole of cremaster muscle after 24-h of ischemic preconditioning followed by 4-h warm ischemia and to evaluate eNOS and iNOS gene and protein expression at 24 h after ischemic preconditioning in the cremaster muscle. A vascular pedicle isolated cremaster muscle in male SD rats underwent 45-min of ischemic preconditioning and 24 h later, 4-h of warm ischemia followed by reperfusion. Endothelial-dependent and -independent vasodilatation was evaluated on day 2 after 4-h ischemia and 60-min of reperfusion. Cremaster muscles were harvested at 24 h after ischemic preconditioning for measuring of eNOS and iNOS gene expression by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and protein expression by western blotting analysis. We found that IPC significantly attenuated endothelial dysfunction induced by 4-h warm ischemia and reperfusion. The expression of eNOS and iNOS mRNA shown a 229% and 135% increase respectively in IPC treated cremaster muscles as compared to normal cremaster muscles (P<0.05). The expression of eNOS and iNOS protein exhibited a 133% and 148% increase respectively in IPC treated cremaster muscles as compared to normal cremaster muscles (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between normal cremaster muscle and sham IPC treated cremaster muscle. The results suggest that IPC preventing vascular endothelial dysfunction from ischemia/reperfusion injury may be due to the enhanced NOS expression. These results combined with the results from our previous studies suggest that IPC-induced microvascular protection in the skeletal muscle may act through a NOS-dependent mechanism.