Arginine Therapy - Sick Cell Disease

" Arginine Therapy: a novel strategy to induce nitric oxide production in sickle cell disease

SHORT REPORT

Claudia R. Morris, 1 Frans A. Kuypers, 2 Sandra Larkin, 2 Nancy Sweeters, 3 Julie Simon, 3 Elliott P. Vichinsky 4 and Lori A. Styles 4

1 Department of Emergency Medicine,

Children's Hospital Oakland, 2 Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, 3 Pediatric Clinical Research Center, and 4 Department of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital Oakland, Oakland, CA, USA

KEYWORDS
nitric oxide • l-arginine • sickle cell disease • vaso-occlusive crisis • nitric oxide metabolites

ABSTRACT
To determine the effects of l-arginine (l-Arg) supplementation on nitric oxide metabolite (NOx) production, oral l-Arg was given to normal controls, sickle cell disease (SCD) patients at steady state and SCD patients hospitalized with a vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC).

l-Arg (0·1 g/kg) increased NOx formation by 18·8 ± 68% in normal controls, whereas steady-state SCD patients demonstrated a paradoxical decrease in NOx of −16·7 ± 4% (P = 0·004). In contrast, patients with VOC demonstrated a dramatic increase in NOx production by +77·7 ± 103%, a response that was dose dependent.

l-Arg appears to be the rate-limiting step in NOx production during VOC. Oral arginine may therefore benefit SCD patients by inducing an increase in NO production during VOC."
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Source of Report
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121360196/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
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