Changes in vasodilator responses of vascular smooth muscles and nitric oxide system in experimental diabetes mellitus

: The experimental data of endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent responses of vascular smooth muscles of isolated preparations of the thoracic aorta of rats with experimental diabetes mellitus (streptozotocin-induced diabetes) and a control group of animals are presented in the article. It has been shown that at diabetes mellitus endothelium-dependent vasodilation was deteriorated to the most extent. It resulted from dysfunction of the endothelium due to a reduce in the synthesis of NO. This conclusion was based on the data of the parameters of the contents of steady metabolites of nitric oxide (NO2- and NO3-), as well as activities of inducible and constitutive NO-synthases (iNOS and cNOS) in heart, aorta, erythrocytes and blood plasma in diabetic and control animals.