L-citrulline conversion to L-arginine in sphenopalatine ganglia and cerebral perivascular nerves in the pig.

The presence of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), argininosuccinate synthetase (ASS), and argininosuccinate lyase (ASL) and their coexistence with NADPH-diaphorase (NADPHd), a marker for NOS, in the porcine sphenopalatine ganglia (SPG), pial veins, and the anterior cerebral arteries was examined using immunohistochemical and histochemical staining techniques. NOS-immunoreactive (I), ASS-I, and ASL-I fibers were found in pial veins and the anterior cerebral arteries. NOS, ASS, and ASL immunoreactivities were also found in neuronal cell bodies in the SPG. Almost all neuronal cell bodies in the SPG and nerve fibers in pial veins and the anterior cerebral arteries that were reactive to ASS, ASL, and NOS were also stained positively with NADPHd, suggesting that ASS, ASL, and NOS were colocalized in the same neurons in the SPG and perivascular nerves. With the use of in vitro tissue bath techniques, L-citrulline but not D-citrulline reversed inhibition of neurogenic vasodilation in isolated porcine pial veins produced by NOS inhibitors such as NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester. In the presence of L-aspartate, L-arginine was synthesized from L-citrulline in homogenates of SPG and endothelium-denuded cerebral arteries and pial veins. These results provide evidence indicating that perivascular nerves in pial veins like cerebral arteries can convert L-citrulline to L-arginine for synthesizing nitric oxide. The conversion is most likely via an argininosuccinate pathway.