EVIDENCE THAT INDUCIBLE NITRIC-OXIDE SYNTHASE IS INVOLVED IN LPS-INDUCED PLASMA LEAKAGE IN RAT SKIN THROUGH THE ACTIVATION OF NUCLEAR FACTOR-KAPPA-B

1 Rats challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) produce large amounts of nitric oxide (NO) following the induction of the inducible NO-synth ase (iNOS) in several tissues and organs. Recent studies have shown th at the expression of iNOS is regulated at the transcriptional level by a transcription nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappa B). In this study we investigated the role of NO in a model of LPS-induced plasma-leakage in rat skin and the involvement of NF-kappa B. 2 Plasma leakage in the rat skin was measured over a period of 30 min to 2 h as the local acc umulation of intravenous (i.v.) injection of [I-125]-human serum album in ([I-125]-HSA) in response to intradermal (i.d.) injection of LPS. L PS (1, 10, 100 mu g/site) produced a dose-related increase in plasma e xtravasation (18.2+/-3.2, 27.2+/-2.9, 40.4+/-9.6 mu l/site) as compare d to saline control (11.4+/-2.2 mu l/site). This increase was maximal after 2 h; therefore this time point and the dose of LPS 10 mu g/site was used in all the successive experiments. 3 To investigate the role of NO in LPS-induced plasma leakage in rat skin, the non-selective NOS inhibitor N(G)nitro-L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME) or the more sele ctive iNOS inhibitor S-methyl-isothiourea (SMT) was injected i.d. with LPS. L-NAME and SMT (0.01, 0.1 and 1 mu mol/site) inhibited LPS-induc ed plasma leakage in a dose-related fashion (L-NAME: 26.0+/-5.5, 20.2/-1.6, 18.0+/-2.0 mu l/site; SMT: 19.5+/-1.5, 17.0+/-1.6, 15.0+/-2.6 m u l/site) as compared to LPS alone (27.2+/-2.9 mu l/site). At the lowe st concentration used (0.01 mu mol/site), SMT significantly reduced pl asma leakage by 30%+/-0.7 while L-NAME (0.01 mu mol/site) was not effe ctive. 4 Treatment with increasing concentrations of pyrrolidinedithyo carbamate (PDTC) (0.01, 0.1, 1 mu mol/ site), an inhibitor of NF-kappa B activation, injected i.d. 30 min before LPS challenge, inhibited in a concentration-dependent fashion LPS-induced plasma leakage by 9.0+/ -0.6, 33+/-4.0, 51+/-2.0% respectively. Moreover, PDTC (0.1, 1 mu mol/ site) suppressed LPS-induced NF-kappa B DNA-binding. 5 Western blot an alysis showed significant levels of iNOS proteins in the skin samples of LPS-treated rats, as compared to basal levels present in saline-inj ected rat skin. PDTC (0.1, 1.0 mu mol/site) dose-dependently decreased the amount of iNOS protein expression induced by LPS. 6 Our results i ndicate that LPS-induced plasma leakage in rat skin is modulated by NO mainly produced by the inducible isoform of NOS. Furthermore, the sup pression of plasma leakage by PDTC,an inhibitor of NF-kappa B activati on, is correlated to the inhibition of iNOS protein expression.