© 2002 by European Society of Cardiology
Copyright © 2002, European Society of Cardiology
Nitric oxide and angiogenic activity of endothelial cells: direct or VEGF-dependent effect?
aDepartment of Cell Biochemistry, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
bLaboratory of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
cDepartment of Vascular Surgery, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
jdulak@mol.uj.edu.pl
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +48-12-252-6375; fax: +42-12-252-6902
Received 25 June 2002; accepted 25 June 2002
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In a recent interesting paper Babaei and Stewart [1] demonstrated that coculture of endothelial cells (ECs) with smooth muscle cells (SMCs) may result in the formation of extensive capillary-like structure. However, the effect was observed only when SMCs were previously transfected with vector containing the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) cDNA. Such an in vitro angiogenic-like events were abrogated by L-NAME, a NOS inhibitor. A similar