NO News
Nitric oxide may help treat sickle cell anemia
A little more than a decade ago, nitric oxide, or NO, was primarily viewed as a gaseous component of air pollution. Since then, however, researchers have discovered that cells in the body produce this simple compound. Nitric oxide serves a variety of purposes, including boosting the immune response and regulating blood pressure (SN: 10/17/98, p. 246). Consequently, physicians have begun to look at nitric oxide’s potential to heal rather than harm.
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Because the compound causes blood vessels to dilate, enabling more blood to flow through them, researchers suspected that inhaling nitric oxide might help patients who were having trouble breathing. Drug treatments to widen blood vessels affect the entire body and thus can lead to dangerously low blood pressure.