Effects of repeated stress on plasma arginine levels in young and old rats

Differential vascular adaptive response to stress exposure in male and female rats: Role of gonadal hormones and endothelial cells

“…It has also been described that stress exposure induces a decrease in plasma levels of arginine, the precursor for nitric oxide (Milakofsky et al 1993). It is reported that the stress-induced aorta reactivity alteration in intact rats is a nonspecific phenomenon since, besides the aorta hyporeactivity to noradrenaline, the vasodilation induced by acetylcholine is also increased after stress exposure (Cordellini and Vassilieff 1998).…”

Medical Therapy For Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

“…In addition, it is clear that the amino acid, L-arginine, is the sole substrate for NOS and thus is essential for NO production. It is estimated that the average diet is borderline in arginine content, 111,112 and circulating levels can be reduced by administration of arginine-deficient protein, 111,112 by pregnancy, [113][114][115][116][117] aging, 118 or stress. 118 Still, in vivo arginine levels have been thought to be more than sufficient for NO synthesis because at usual plasma levels of 50 to 100 mol/L, active transport produces intracellular levels of 1,000 mol/L, which vastly exceed the Km for NOS of 1 to 3 mol/L.…”

Stress Alone or associated with Ethanol Induces Prostanoid Release in Rat Aorta via α2-Adrenoceptor

“…These findings corroborate previous reports showing that stress promotes endothelial dysfunction 2,3,19,20 . However, other studies reported that exposure to stress may actually enhance, rather than impair, endothelial function 1,21,22 .…”