Brain nitric oxide synthase activity in normal, hypertensive, and stroke-prone rats.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Nitric oxide-mediated cerebral vasodilation is altered in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats. Stroke predisposition in this strain could be related to a genetic defect of brain nitric oxide synthase, the enzyme responsible for nitric oxide production. We tested the hypothesis that brain nitric oxide synthase activity is altered in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats compared with spontaneously hypertensive or Wistar-Kyoto rats. METHODS: A colony of spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats was bred, in which the rate of neurological events under salt load was assessed. In a separate cohort of animals brain nitric oxide synthase activity was measured in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats (n = 6) and in spontaneously hypertensive (n = 6) and genetically related Wistar-Kyoto rats (n = 6). Calcium dependency of nitric oxide synthase was also assessed in cortical brain samples from the three rat strains to determine if altered calcium-dependent activation of nitric oxide synthase was present. RESULTS: Brain nitric oxide synthase activity was highest in the cerebellum (eg, spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats: cerebral cortex, 10.6 +/- 0.9; cerebellum, 50.1 +/- 12.0; brain stem, 14.7 +/- 10.3 pmol/mg protein per minute); however, there was no difference among the three rat strains in any region (eg, cerebral cortex: spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone, 10.6 +/- 0.9; spontaneously hypertensive, 10.8 +/- 0.5; Wistar-Kyoto, 10.9 +/- 0.7 pmol/mg protein per minute) or at any calcium concentration tested. CONCLUSIONS: A genetic defect of brain nitric oxide synthase is unlikely to be the cause of stroke predisposition in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats.