title: Expression and activity of arginase isoenzymes during normal and diabetes-impaired skin repair.
abstract: Within the past years, an important role for nitric oxide (NO) in skin repair has been well defined. As NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthases (NOS), the availability of L-arginine might be one rate-limiting factor of NO production at the wound site. Upon injury, arginase-1 and -2 mRNA, protein, and activity were strongly induced reaching a maximum between day 3 and day 7 postwounding. Immunohistochemistry colocalized both arginases and the inducible NOS (iNOS) at epithelial sites at the margins of the wound. Notably, diabetes-impaired skin repair in leptin-deficient mice (diabetes/diabetes, db/db; and obese/obese, ob/ob) was characterized by an abnormally elevated arginase activity in wound tissue in the absence of an expression of iNOS. Expression analyses demonstrated that arginase-1 contributed to increased arginase activities in impaired repair. Interestingly, an improved healing of chronic wound situations in leptin-supplemented ob/ob mice was strongly associated with an adjustment of the dysregulated expression of L-arginine-converting enzymes: an attenuated iNOS expression was upregulated early in repair and an augmented arginase-1 expression and activity was downregulated in the presence of markedly elevated numbers of macrophages during late repair. These data suggest a coordinated consumption of L-arginine by the NOS and arginase enzymatic pathways at the wound site as a prerequisite for a balanced NO (via iNOS) and polyamine (via arginases) synthesis that drives a normal skin repair.
authors.affiliation: Pharmazentrum Frankfurt, Klinikum der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kämpfer
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pfeilschifter
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001119:Arginase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001120:Arginine / Q000378:metabolism; D002908:Chronic Disease; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D020738:Leptin / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; D012867:Skin / Q000201:enzymology / Q000293:injuries*; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D007527:Isoenzymes; D020738:Leptin; D001120:Arginine; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase; D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II; C496317:Nos2 protein, mouse; D001119:Arginase