TY - JOUR
T1 - Greater nasal nitric oxide output during inhalation
T2 - Effects on air temperature and water content
AU - Holden, William E.
AU - Sippel, Jeffrey M.
AU - Nelson, Bella
AU - Giraud, George D.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the assistance with experiments by Michelle Harris and the support of the Murdock Foundation Charitable Trust.
PY - 2009/1/1
Y1 - 2009/1/1
N2 - The nose conditions the temperature and humidity of nasal air, and the nasal mucosal vasculature supplies heat and water for these processes. We hypothesize that nitric oxide (NO) modulates these processes through vasoactive effects on nasal mucosal vasculature. We measured the temperature, humidity and NO concentrations of nasal air during inhalation and exhalation across the nose and calculated net heat, water and NO output before (controls, n = 7) and after inhibition of NO synthase by topical l-NAME (N = 5) in healthy humans. We found that calculated NO output across the nasal passages is approximately three-fold greater during inhalation (503 ± 105 nL/min) compared with exhalation (162 ± 56 nL/min). Moreover, topical administration of l-NAME decreased nasal air temperature and humidity conditioning and NO output, but these effects were limited to inhalation. We conclude that nasal NO output is greater during inhalation than exhalation in humans. Our findings also support a role of nasal NO in temperature and humidity conditioning of nasal air.
AB - The nose conditions the temperature and humidity of nasal air, and the nasal mucosal vasculature supplies heat and water for these processes. We hypothesize that nitric oxide (NO) modulates these processes through vasoactive effects on nasal mucosal vasculature. We measured the temperature, humidity and NO concentrations of nasal air during inhalation and exhalation across the nose and calculated net heat, water and NO output before (controls, n = 7) and after inhibition of NO synthase by topical l-NAME (N = 5) in healthy humans. We found that calculated NO output across the nasal passages is approximately three-fold greater during inhalation (503 ± 105 nL/min) compared with exhalation (162 ± 56 nL/min). Moreover, topical administration of l-NAME decreased nasal air temperature and humidity conditioning and NO output, but these effects were limited to inhalation. We conclude that nasal NO output is greater during inhalation than exhalation in humans. Our findings also support a role of nasal NO in temperature and humidity conditioning of nasal air.
KW - Humidity
KW - N-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME)
KW - Nitric oxide
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U2 - 10.1016/j.resp.2008.09.009
DO - 10.1016/j.resp.2008.09.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 18952009
AN - SCOPUS:57849119581
SN - 1569-9048
VL - 165
SP - 22
EP - 27
JO - Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology
JF - Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology
IS - 1
ER -