Investigating the effect of genetic variation on inducible nitric oxide synthase enzymatic activity

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS, NOS2/Nos2) is an enzyme that produces nitric oxide (NO) for antimicrobial immunity. NO production is a “balancing act;” Sufficient NO is required for immunity, while excess NO reduces long-term cell survival. Our group previously observed that the immune cells of in-bred B6 laboratory mice produce significantly more NO than that of wild-derived PWD mice and located seven amino acids differing between these iNOS variants. Six polymorphisms are conserved between the PWD-iNOS and human-iNOS sequences. This current study aims to investigate the effect of genetic variation on determining the functional capacities of these iNOS variants.