Critical care medicine
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Critical care medicine · Feb 1998
Comparative StudyInhibition of exhaled nitric oxide production during sepsis does not prevent lung inflammation.
Increases in exhaled nitric oxide have been demonstrated to originate from the lungs of rats after septic lung injury. The aim of this study was to investigate whether treatment with the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) would prevent lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced increases in exhaled nitric oxide and whether this would have an effect on septic lung inflammation. ⋯ We conclude that L-NAME can inhibit the increase in exhaled NO from the lungs of septic rats, but that this inhibition does not reduce lung inflammation, and may worsen it.