Bioactivation of nitroglycerin is determined by the subcellular localization of aldehyde dehydrogenase-2

Objective In the present study we investigated whether bioactivation of GTN is affected by the subcellular localization of ALDH2 using immortalized ALDH2-deficient aortic smooth muscle cells with selective overexpression of the enzyme in either cytosol or mitochondria. Furthermore we investigated a potential correlation between the relaxation potency of GTN and the distribution of ALDH2 in arterial blood vessels from different species as well as the subcellular distribution of the enzyme in several murine organs.