Abstract 17697: Long-Term Dietary Nitrite and Nitrate Deficiency Causes Metabolic Syndrome, Endothelial Dysfunction, and Cardiovascular Death in Mice

Background: Nitric oxide (NO) is synthesized not only from L-arginine by NO synthases (NOSs), but also from its inert metabolites, nitrite and nitrate (NOx). Green leafy vegetables are abundant in nitrate, however whether or not a deficiency in dietary NOx spontaneously causes disease remains to be clarified. In this study, we tested our hypothesis that long-term dietary NOx deficiency induces metabolic syndrome (MetS) in mice. Methods and Results: To this end, we prepared a low NOx diet (LND) consisting of a low NOx chow in which the contents of L-arginine, fat, carbohydrates, protein, and calorie were identical with a regular chow, and potable ultrapure water. Nitrite and nitrate were undetectable in both the chow and the water. The LND or a regular diet (RD) was administered in male wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice (n=6-24). We previously reported that plasma NOx levels were extremely low in mice lacking all three NOSs, suggesting a minor role of the exogenous NO production system. However, the LND for 3 mo...