Endothelial nitric oxide synthase transgenic models of endothelial dysfunction

Endothelial production of nitric oxide is critical to the regulation of vascular responses, including vascular tone and regional blood flow, leukocyte–endothelial interactions, platelet adhesion and aggregation, and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation. A relative deficiency in the amount of bioavailable vascular NO results in endothelial dysfunction, with conditions that are conducive to the development of atherosclerosis: thrombosis, inflammation, neointimal proliferation, and vasoconstriction. This review focuses on mouse models of endothelial dysfunction caused by direct genetic modification of the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene. We first describe the cardiovascular phenotypes of eNOS knockout mice, which are a model of total eNOS gene deficiency and thus the ultimate model of endothelial dysfunction. We then describe S1177A and S1177D eNOS mutant mice as mouse models with altered eNOS phosphorylation and therefore varying degrees of endothelial dysfunction. These include transgenic mice that carry the eNOS S1177A and S1177D transgenes, as well as knockin mice in which the endogenous eNOS gene has been mutated to carry the S1177A and S1177D mutations. Together, eNOS knockout mice and eNOS S1177 mutant mice are useful tools to study the effects of total genetic deficiency of eNOS as well as varying degrees of endothelial dysfunction caused by eNOS S1177 phosphorylation.