Abstract
In low oxygen conditions, increases in cerebral blood flow maintain brain oxygen delivery but the mechanisms underlying hypoxia-induced dilations of cerebral vasculature are incompletely understood. Here we show that astrocytes accumulate nitrite and in response to hypoxia produce nitric oxide via mitochondrial reduction of nitrite by a molybdenum-containing enzyme sulfite oxidase. These data suggest that astrocytes can modulate cerebral blood flow in accord with brain tissue oxygenation via mitochondrial production of nitric oxide.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Copyright
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Posted March 14, 2022.
Astrocyte mitochondria produce nitric oxide from nitrite to modulate cerebral blood flow during brain hypoxia
