Báo cáo khoa học: Polarized distribution of inducible nitric oxide synthase regulates activity in intestinal epithelial cells

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) functions as a homodimer. In cell extracts, iNOS molecules partition both in cytosolic and particulate frac-tions, indicating that iNOS exists as soluble and membrane associated forms. In this study, iNOS features were investigated in human intestinal epithelial cells stimulated with cytokines and in duodenum from mice exposed to flagellin. Our experiments indicate that iNOS is mainly associ-ated with the particulate fraction of cell extracts. Confocal microscopy showed a preferential localization of iNOS at the apical pole of intestinal epithelial cells. ...