Abstract
Nitric oxide (NO) is a major form of the endothelium-derived relaxing factor. Recently, its role in the pathogenesis of renal diseases including idiopathic nehphrotic syndrome (INS) has been intensively investigated. However, its rapid turnover has made us to investigate the quantity and the source difficult. With a novel fluorescent indicator for NO, we have developed the methodology to measure the NO production by diverse cells and studied the NO production by lymphocytes in INS: the patients with INS showed significantly elevated NO production by both T and B lymphocyte in comparison with children with other renal diseases and healthy adult volunteers. In contrast, there were no significant differences among children with INS after achieving remission, children with other renal diseases and normal healthy volunteer.
These findings indicate that NO plays an important role in the pathogenesis of INS and abnormal immune system in INS may exist not only in T lymphocytes but also in B lymphocytes and other immunological cells.
