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It has been more than five years since the appearance of the first edition of
Nitric Oxide Protocols. According to Medline, more than 32,500 publications
dealing with nitric oxide have appeared in the primary literature in the intervening
time from 1999 to April 2004. These numbers attest to the continuing
vitality of a field dealing with a deceptively simple, although extremely interesting
and promiscuous molecule, nitric oxide. Despite its apparent chemical
simplicity, nitric oxide continues to amaze, with an extremely wide spectrum
of functions and effects. In particular, the last few years have witnessed an
explosion of nonclassical effects, involving the direct interaction of nitric oxide
and related oxidized products with proteins to yield such novel combinations
as nitrosylated and nitrated proteins. Another emergent area has been that
of NO’s clinical applications, including interesting developments related to the
virus-mediated expression of nitric oxide synthase and the use of nitric oxide
in gene therapy.
In Nitric Oxide Protocols, I have gathered chapters dealing with the some of
the latest methodologies for the measurement of nitric oxide. Many of these
deal with quantitation in biological fluids or tissues, and they cover a wide
spectrum of technologies, including capillary electrophoresis, microcoaxial
electrodes, the in vivo measurement of nitric oxide in exhaled air, confocal
microscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy, in situ hybridization, and
real-time polymerase chain reaction. Also included are chapters on the measurement
of novel products of nitric oxide, such as nitrated proteins, Snitrosylated
proteins, and dioxygen-dependent NO metabolism. Finally, I have
included a section dealing with the expression of nitric oxide synthase via the
use of viral vectors. These chapters include such approaches as gene therapy
for erectile dysfunction or cancer, as well as retrovirus, adenovirus, or adenoassociated
virus-mediated expression of nitric oxide synthase in vivo.
In accordance with the overall philosophy of the series, the chapters were
written with special emphasis on the full description of methods. Particular
attention was paid to the section of Notes, which greatly amplifies the description
of various methodologies and is an integral and unique aspect of the current
series and of this particular volume. |