PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Qiong Wang
AU  - Michael Cwik
AU  - Catherine J. Wright
AU  - Francesca Cunningham
AU  - Dale A. Pelligrino
TI  - The In Vivo Unidirectional Conversion of Nitro-<span class="sc">d</span>-arginine to Nitro-<span class="sc">l</span>-arginine
DP  - 1999 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
PG  - 270--273
VI  - 288
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/288/1/270.short
4100  - http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/288/1/270.full
SO  - J Pharmacol Exp Ther1999 Jan 01; 288
AB  - We recently reported that nitric oxide synthase in the brain can be inhibited not only by nitro-l-arginine (l-NA) but also by its D-enantiomer nitro-d-arginine (d-NA). In the present study, we found that d-NA, when tested in vitro, was 400 times less potent than l-NA. However, when d-NA was injected in vivo, its l-enantiomer, l-NA, was found to rapidly appear in plasma samples (∼1 min), rose to a maximum concentration at 30 min (∼40% conversion), and remained at this plateau for about 5 h. This was consistent with the changes in blood pressure. There was no conversion of l- tod-NA. The results suggested that d-NA has very weak biological actions by itself, but when administered in vivo,d-NA can be converted to l-NA. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics