| pubmed-article:11766065 | pubmed:abstractText | It is of great interest and value to evaluate the systemic nitric oxide (NO) production rate in humans under various conditions. However, the currently available estimation methods are troublesome and time-consuming. We thus aimed at developing a simple method to estimate the basal systemic NO production rate in humans based on a steady-state analysis, i.e., a balance between the systemic NO production rate and the total nitrate elimination rate. Plasma nitrate concentrations of young healthy volunteers (n = 7 in group 1: n = 9 in group 2) were measured for 2 days. In group 1, all subjects had the same meals for 7 days prior to the plasma nitrate measurement. In group 2, all subjects were allowed free diets. The plasma nitrate concentrations were highly influenced by dietary nitrite/nitrate intake in both groups and reached the steady-state levels after 14-h fasting. Accordingly, the basal systemic NO production rates were estimated from the plasma nitrate concentrations after 14-h fasting (group 1, 630 +/- 37 nmol min(-1) = 0.78 +/- 0.03 micromol kg(-1) h(-1); group 2, 597 +/- 45 nmol min(-1) = 0.66 +/- 0.05 micromol kg(-1) h(-1), P = not significant vs group 1). These estimated values were comparable to the values obtained by other methods. In conclusion, the present estimation method with 14-h fasting using a single-compartment analysis was found to be a simple approach to quantitative evaluation and intra- and interindividual comparisons of the basal systemic NO production rates in humans. | lld:pubmed |
