Effects of Nitric Oxide on Proliferation and Apoptosis of Cultured Bovine Trabecular Meshwork Cell

Nitric Oxide (NO) shows a dualism in thepathogenesis of glaucoma:in one side,NO can im-prove outflow facility of aqueous humor and dropintraocular pressure (IOP) ;on the other side,ithas direct toxic effect on retinal ganglion cell[1] .Our preveious studies demonstrated,in some ex-tent,pressure could induce inducible nitric oxidesynthase(i NOS) m RNA expression,so to increase NOS synthesis and NO level[2 ] .In this experimentwe discussed the effects of NO on the proliferationand apopto…

Effects of nitric oxide on proliferation and apoptosis of cultured bovine trabecular meshwork cells

The effects of different doses of nitric oxide (NO) on the proliferation and apoptosis of the cultured bovine trabecular meshwork (TM) cells were studied. L-arginine and NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl (L-NAME) were incubated with TM cells for 48 h. In the control group, no medicine was given. In the experimental groups, concentrations of L-arginine and L-NAME were 1 x 10(-7) mol/L, 1 x 10(-6) mol/L, 1 x 10(-5) mol/L, 1 x 10(-4) mol/L, 1 x 10(-3) mol/L and 1 x 10(-2) mol/L, respectively. NO2- in supernate, the proliferation and apoptosis of TM cells and mRNA expression of bcl-2 and bax were measured by Griess reagent, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL), MTT assay and in situ hybridization, respectively. The results showed that L-arginine with concentration > or = 1 x 10(-4) mol/L could induce apoptosis of the TM cells and inhibit the proliferation of TM cells through increasing the NO levels, down-regulating bcl-2 mRNA expression and up-regulating bax mRNA expression; L-NAME with concentration > or = 1 x 10(-5) mol/L could induce the proliferation of the TM cells through suppressing the production of NO. It was concluded that NO in high level could induce apoptosis of the TM cells and suppress the proliferation of the TM cells.