Abstract 17585: Long-term Dietary Nitrite and Nitrate Deficiency Causes Metabolic Syndrome in Mice

Background: Nitric oxide (NO) is formed not only from L-arginine by a family of NO synthases (NOSs), but also from its inert metabolites, nitrite and nitrate (NOx). Green leafy vegetables are rich in nitrate. However, little is known about the role of the exogenous NO production system in disease pathogenesis. In this study, we tested our hypothesis that long-term dietary NOx deficiency causes metabolic syndrome in mice. Methods and Results: To this end, we prepared a low NOx chow in which the contents of L-arginine, carbohydrate, protein, fat, and calorie were identical with a regular chow, and ultrapure drinking water in which NOx levels were undetectable. The low NOx diet was administered in male wild-type (WT) C57BL/6 mice for 3-20 months (n=6-12). We previously reported that plasma NOx levels were extremely low in mice lacking all three NOS isoforms, suggesting that the exogenous NO production system might play a minor role in the regulation of NO production in vivo. However, unexpectedly, the low NO...