Nitric oxide—Important messenger in human body

Abstract

General idea of this comprehensive review is to sum-marize information about the role of nitric oxide in the human body—cardiovascular, respiratory, urge-nital, gut, NO and immune system, however, NO sig-naling has a role also in musculoskeletal system, even in bones. NO in the past had been recognized as a molecule relevant to air pollution. In 1980 Furchgott and Zawadzki identified new messenger molecule within the endothelial cells with vasodilating potential and they named it endothelium derived relaxing fac-tor (EDRF). Seven years later the role of NO as a re-laxing factor was definitely proven. The fact of gas, being produced by cells, crossing membranes of neighboring cells and having a character of signal brought a brand new insight to the signaling physiol-ogy. The breakthrough in the NO history was in 1992, when it was assigned as " molecule of the year " . Role of NO was defined mainly in the cardiovascular sys-tem, but as the research expanded, the ultimate func-tion, and mechanism of action, dual effect of NO had been identified in all systems of human body. NO in low concentrations considerably regulates the physio-logical functions, but in high concentration may con-tribute to the pathogenetic process. Knowledge the physiology of NO signaling cascades could have clini-cal application, mainly considering therapeutic poten-tial of NO donors, or antagonists of NO-synthases. This molecule has undoubtedly huge future potential.