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HIGHLIGHTED TOPIC: Barry W. Allen, Ivan T. Demchenko, and Claude A. Piantadosi Two faces of nitric oxide: implications for cellular mechanisms of oxygen toxicity J Appl Physiol 2009; 106: 662-667 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Some thoughts on NO and O2

john marc gibbons   (1 October 2009)

Some thoughts on NO and O2 1 October 2009
john marc gibbons, Management Consultant none Send letter to journal: Re: Some thoughts on NO and O2 johnmarcgibbons{at}gmail.com john marc gibbons	As part of my PhD submitted in 2000 at the University of London I published a version of this theory. It was based on the fact that although previous studies had looked at the effect of varying the pp02 on the production of NO. The mistake people had made was dismissing the values as being unimportant as to biochemists they did not appear physiologically relevant. In reality when looking at the effect of pp02 on in vitro NO production it actually does affect the reaction rate at physiologically relevant values (I believe the paper was by Rengasamy 1991). I also suggest that this may explain some of the differences seen in acute oxygen toxicity when breathing o2 in a dry chamber versus when breathing 02 in a wet chamber. The effect of immersion although subtle may increase localised NO production as a byproduct of increased blood pressure when immersed. Over the years I have followed the papers published on NO and suggest that altitude sickness will also be found to be caused by subtle changes in NO production. Now the question which remains to be answered is, is it the increase in pp02 that causes the toxicity, or is it the absence of nitrogen. Could it be that nitrogen is inhibiting NO synthase? Which might leads us to look at the role that NO inhibition may have on nitrogen narcosis, and also HPNS. The way of course to analyse this is to perform the in vitro NO synthase studies using a range of inert gases to determine if it is an N2 effect or an O2. I only wish I had managed to stay in research to carry on the research, however wife and children forced me into business.