Endogenous production of nitric oxide by iNOS in human cells restricts inflammatory activation and cholesterol/fatty acid biosynthesis

Nitric oxide (NO) is a bioactive gas that is known to control many physiological processes. In human parenchymal cells, the function of iNOS-derived NO is incompletely understood. Here, we used RNA-seq to examine the role of iNOS-derived NO in the control of gene expression in a human lung epithelial cell line treated with inflammatory cytokines. iNOS-derived NO restricted the expression of genes involved in immune signaling, including the immune-related genes CXCL9 and E-selectin that were not previously known to be inhibited by iNOS. We also determined that iNOS-derived NO inhibits the expression of genes needed for cholesterol/fatty acid biosynthesis in response to cytokine stimulation, a process not previously known to be affected by NO. These findings establish the regulation of immune activation and cholesterol/fatty acid biosynthesis as main functions of iNOS in human parenchymal cells.