Description
Product Characteristics: Human nitric oxide synthases are a family of enzymes responsible for the synthesis of nitric oxide from L-arginine and molecular oxygen. There are at least three nitric oxide synthases, NOS I, also known as neuronal NOS or nNOS, NOS II, which is referred to as inducible NOS or iNOS and NOS III, also known as endothelial NOS or eNOS. nNOS plays a role in the upregulation of microglial phospho-p38 MAPK. Such p38 MAPK activation in microglia is consistent with a potential role in the development of morphine antinociceptive tolerance.
Target Information: The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the family of nitric oxide synthases, which synthesize nitric oxide from L-arginine. Nitric oxide is a reactive free radical, which acts as a biologic mediator in several processes, including neurotransmission, and antimicrobial and antitumoral activities. In the brain and peripheral nervous system, nitric oxide displays many properties of a neurotransmitter, and has been implicated in neurotoxicity associated with stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, neural regulation of smooth muscle, including peristalsis, and penile erection. This protein is ubiquitously expressed, with high level of expression in skeletal muscle. Multiple transcript variants that differ in the 5' UTR have been described for this gene but the full-length nature of these transcripts is not known. Additionally, alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms (some testis-specific) have been found for this gene.[provided by RefSeq, Feb 2011]