THE ROLE OF HEME-CONTAINING GLOBINS IN HYPOXIC NO-SIGNALING OF VERTEBRATE CELLS
N.V. Kuleva, I.E. Krasovskaya
Department of Biochemistry, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 199034;
e-mail: nadezhda.kuleva@gmail.com
Nitric oxide is one of the most important signaling molecule of living organisms. It may be produced by
two ways: from arginine by means of NO-syntases and from nitrite by means of nitrite reductases. The last way
is realized mostly at hypoxic state of organisms and heme-containing globins of vertebrates (hemoglobin, myoglobin,
cytoglobin, neuroglobin) mediate the transformation of NO2 into NO by means of their nitrite reductase
activities. Hypoxic NO-signaling depends on oxygen concentration and is important for exercise, vascular hypoxic
vasodilation, myocardial preconditioning and angiogenesis. Data of scientific literature of last 15 years
show that the nitrite-reductase activity of heme-containing globins was used for oxygen sensing and ROS/RNS
defence at early stages of life evolution.
Key words:
hemoglobin, myoglobin, cytoglobin, neuroglobin, nitrite, NO-signaling, molecular evolution
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