Role of nitric oxide synthase in release of endothelin from cultured human endometrial cells

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the nitric oxide/nitric oxide synthase (NO/NOS) system on the release of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in human endometrial cells. Human endometrial stromal cells in secretory phase were incubated for 72 h in serum-free RPMI 1640 medium in the absence or presence of different concentrations of interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) and NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (LNMMA), a specific competitive inhibitor of NOS. ET-1 released from the cultured cells into the medium was determined by specific RIA. In all the experiments at various times, IL-1beta significantly increased the release of ET-1. LNMMA significantly attenuated the release of ET-1 when the cells were cultured with both IL-1beta and LNMMA, but LNMMA alone had no effect on ET-1 release. These results suggest that the NO/NOS system in human endometrium is involved in the regulation of ET-1 release via IL-1beta secretion. It can also be inferred that NO and ET-1 control the functions of endometrium in close association with IL-1beta.

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