Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.
Br J Pharmacol. 2009 Jul;157(6):922-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.2009.00278.x. Epub 2009 Jun 5.
As arginine can serve as precursor to a wide range of compounds, including nitric oxide, creatine, urea, polyamines, proline, glutamate and agmatine, there is considerable interest in elucidating mechanisms underlying regulation of its metabolism. It is now becoming apparent that the two isoforms of arginase in mammals play key roles in regulation of most aspects of arginine metabolism in health and disease. In particular, work over the past several years has focused on the roles and regulation of the arginases in vascular disease, pulmonary disease, infectious disease, immune cell function and cancer. As most of these topics have been considered in recent review articles, this review will focus more closely on results of recent studies on expression of the arginases in endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells, post-translational modulation of arginase activity and applications of arginase inhibitors in vivo.
由于精氨酸可以作为多种化合物的前体，包括一氧化氮、肌酸、尿素、多胺、脯氨酸、谷氨酸和胍丁胺，因此人们对阐明其代谢调节的机制非常感兴趣。现在，人们越来越清楚地认识到哺乳动物中两种精氨酸酶同工酶在调节健康和疾病中精氨酸代谢的大多数方面起着关键作用。特别是，过去几年的工作集中在精氨酸酶在血管疾病、肺部疾病、传染病、免疫细胞功能和癌症中的作用和调节上。由于这些主题中的大多数都在最近的评论文章中进行了考虑，因此本次综述将更密切地关注最近关于内皮细胞和血管平滑肌细胞中精氨酸酶表达、精氨酸酶活性的翻译后调节以及精氨酸酶抑制剂在体内应用的研究结果。
