title: Dietary nitrite ameliorates renal injury in L-NAME-induced hypertensive rats.
abstract: Nitric oxide (NO) has numerous important functions in the kidney, and long-term blockage of nitric oxide synthases in rats by L-NAME results in severe hypertension and progressive kidney damage. On the other hand, NO production seems to be low in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and NO deficiency may play a role in CKD progression. In this review, we summarized the mechanisms of amelioration of renal injury induced by L-NAME treated rats by treatment of nitrite. First, we demonstrate whether orally-administrated nitrite-derived NO can shift to the circulation. When 3mg/kg body weight Na(15)NO(2) was orally administered to rats, an apparent EPR signal derived from Hb(15)NO (A(z)=23.4 gauss) appeared in the blood, indicating that orally ingested nitrite can be a source of NO in vivo. Next, in order to clarify the capacity of nitrite to prevent renal disease, we administered low-dose nitrite (LDN: 0.1mg of sodium nitrite in 1L of drinking water), medium-dose nitrite (MDN: 1mg sodium nitrite/L, which corresponds to the amount of nitrite ingested by vegetarians), or high-dose nitrite (HDN: 10mg sodium nitrite/L) to rats simultaneously with L-NAME (1 g l-NAME/L) for 8 weeks, then examined the blood NO level as a hemoglobin-NO adduct (iron-nitrosyl-hemoglobin) using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, urinary protein excretion, and renal histological changes at the end of the experiment. It was found that oral administration of MDN and HDN but not LDN increased the blood iron-nitrosyl-hemoglobin concentration to the normal level, ameliorated the L-NAME-induced proteinuria, and reduced renal histological damage. The findings demonstrate that chronic administration of a mid-level dietary dose of nitrite restores the circulating iron-nitrosyl-hemoglobin levels reduced by L-NAME and that maintenance of the circulating iron-nitrosyl-hemoglobin level in a controlled range protects against L-NAME-induced renal injury. Taking these findings together, we propose that dietary supplementation of nitrite is a potentially useful nonpharmacological strategy for maintaining circulating NO level in order to prevent or slow the progression of renal disease. It had been believed that nitrite could result in intragastric formation of nitrosamines, which had been linked to esophageal and other gastrointestinal cancers. However, there is no positive association between the intake of nitrate or nitrite and gastric and pancreatic cancer by recent researches. Furthermore, nitrate-derived NO formation pathway is a possible mechanism for the hypotensive effect of vegetable- and fruit-rich diets, which may explain, at least in part, the mechanism of the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet-induced hypotensive and organ-protective effects. Further research is needed to investigate the interaction between nitrite-nitrate intakes and human health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Pharmacology, Institute of Health Biosciences, The University of Tokushima Graduate School, 1-78-1 Sho-machi, Tokushima 770-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsuchiya
authors.forename: Shuhei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishizawa
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ikeda
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kihira
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamaki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D006973:Hypertension / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester; D051381:Rats; D012977:Sodium Nitrite / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D012977:Sodium Nitrite; D019331:NG-Nitroarginine Methyl Ester