Exercise causes a tissue-specific change of NO production in the kidney and lung

chi, and Mitsuo Matsuda. Exercise causes a tissue-specific change of NO production in the kidney and lung. J Appl Physiol 94: 60–68, 2003. First published September 20, 2002; 10.1152/japplphysiol.00269.2002.—Nitric oxide (NO) is pro-duced in the vascular endothelium and is a potent vasodila-tor substance that participates in the regulation of local vascular tone. Exercise causes peculiar changes in systemic and regional blood flow, i.e., an increase of systemic blood flow and a redistribution of local tissue blood flow, by which the blood flow is greatly increased in the working muscles, whereas it is decreased in some organs such as the kidney and intestine. Thus we hypothesized that exercise causes a tissue-specific change of NO production in some internal organs. We studied whether exercise affects expression of NO synthase (NOS) mRNA and protein, NOS activity, and tissu