Endogenous nitric oxide (NO) plays important physiological roles in the body. As a small diatomic molecule, NO has been assumed to freely diffuse in tissues with a diffusion rate similar to that in water. However, this assumption has not been tested experimentally. In this study, a modified Clark-type NO electrode attached with a customized aorta holder was used to directly measure the flux of NO diffusion across the aortic wall at 37 degrees C. Experiments were carefully designed for accurate measurements of the apparent NO diffusion coefficient D and the partition coefficient alpha in the aortic wall. A mathematical model was presented for analyzing experimental data. It was determined that alpha = 1.15 +/- 0.11 and D = 848 +/- 45 mum(2)/s (n = 12). The NO diffusion coefficient in the aortic wall is nearly fourfold smaller than the reported diffusion coefficient in solution at 37 degrees C, indicating that NO diffusion in the vascular wall is no longer free, but markedly dependent on the environment in the tissue where these NO molecules are. These results imply that the NO diffusion rate in the vascular wall may be upregulated and downregulated by certain physiological and/or pathophysiological processes affecting the composition of tissues.

Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is critical in maintaining vascular tone. Accumulating evidence shows that NO bioavailability is regulated by oxygen concentration. However, it is unclear to what extent the oxygen concentration regulates NO bioavailability in the vascular wall. In this study, a recently developed experimental setup was used to measure the NO diffusion fluxes across the aortic wall at different oxygen concentrations. It was observed that for a constant NO concentration at the endothelial surface, the measured NO diffusion flux out of the adventitial surface at [O2]=0 μM is around 5-fold greater than at [O2]=150 μM, indicating that NO is consumed in the aortic wall in an oxygen-dependent manner. Analysis of experimental data shows that the rate of NO consumption in the aortic wall is first order with respect to [NO] and first order with respect to [O2], and the rate constant k1 was determined as (4.0 ± 0.3)×103 M-1s-1. Computer simulations demonstrate that NO concentration distribution significantly changes with oxygen concentration and the effective NO diffusion distance at low oxygen level ([O2]≤25 μM) is significantly longer than that at high oxygen level ([O2]=200 μM). These results suggest that the oxygen-dependent NO consumption may play an important role in dilating blood vessels during hypoxia by increasing the effective NO diffusion distance.

Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in maintaining vascular tone. It is known that NO may be consumed by heme proteins, superoxide and oxygen during diffusion from the endothelium to smooth muscle cells in the vascular wall. Due to the limitation of available techniques, it is unclear to what extent these consumptions can affect the diffusion distance of NO, and if the vascular NO consumption could serve as a “sensor” of oxygen concentrations in the blood vessels. In this study, rat aortas were used as an experimental model for studying NO diffusion process in the vascular system. A Clark-type NO electrode was used to directly measure the flux of NO diffusion across the vascular wall at 37 °C. A segment of aorta was isolated from a 12-week old WKY rat. After the aorta was cleaned and surrounding tissue was removed, it was longitudinally opened. A specifically-designed aorta holder was attached on the tip of the Clark-type NO electrode. The aorta holder surface and the electrode tip surface were aligned in the same plane so that the opened aorta segment could be placed flat on the electrode tip surface and pinned to the aorta holder. Using this technique, we measured the flux of NO diffusion across the aortic wall at different oxygen concentration. It was observed that the NO flux increased 6 to 10 fold when oxygen concentrations dropped from 200 μM to zero. A mathematical model describing the steady-state diffusion-reaction was used in analyzing the experimental data. It was found that the rate of NO decay is first order with respect to [O 2 ] and first order with respect to [NO], and hence of the form k[O 2 ][NO]. The rate constant k was determined as (3.8±0.4)x10 −3 μM −1 s −1 (n=6). With this rate constant, the half-life of NO in the aortic wall in the presence of 200 μM O 2 (equilibrium with room air) will be 0.9 seconds. Our results show that the flux and diffusion distance of NO in the aortic wall is largely regulated by oxygen concentration. When oxygen concentrations drop, NO diffusion distance will significantly increase. As a result, the blood vessel will dilate to a larger extent to allow more blood to be delivered to the hypoxic tissues. Therefore this vascular NO consumption appears to play the role of an oxygen sensor in the regulation of blood flow in the body.