The expression of nNOS and e NOS was increased 2 hours after 10 minutes ME.

<p>(A) The gene coding for nNOS was significantly more expressed at all the times considered with respect to the baseline value (B). The expression of the gene coding for eNOS was significantly more expressed at 2 hours after ME with respect to all the other time points considered (C). The gene coding for iNOS was significantly less expressed at all times after ME with respect to the baseline value. (D) Western blotting performed with brain samples from rats sacrificed 2 hours after ME shows that, at this time, the blot for nNOS and e NOS was more positive compared to the ones obtained in baseline conditions (upper blots), whereas both the iNOS expression and the β-tubulin expression (lower blots) were comparable at the two times considered. (E) Histograms showing the ratio of the optical density between β-tubulin and eNOS, nNOS and iNOS calculated for the baseline condition and 2 hours after ME. * Significantly different from the baseline value. Abbreviations: A.U. arbitrary unit.