Fig 4. Effects of chronic running exercise on nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity, endothelial NOS (eNOS) and neuronal NOS (nNOS) protein expression in the renal cortex and outer medulla of Zucker diabetic fatty rats.
A, B: Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity was evaluated as the in vitro formation of nitrate/nitrite (NOx) in the renal cortex (A) and outer medulla (B) of sedentary lean Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats (Sed-ZL), sedentary ZDF rats (Sed-ZDF) and aerobic treadmill exercised ZDF rats (Ex-ZDF) groups. C–F: Protein expression of the endothelial NOS (eNOS) in the renal cortex (C) and outer medulla (D), and the neuronal NOS (nNOS) in the renal cortex (E) and outer medulla (F) of Sed-ZL, Sed-ZDF and Ex-ZDF groups were examined by western blot analysis. Top panels depict representative immunoblots from the different groups. The intensities of the eNOS bands (140 kDa) and the nNOS bands (155 kDa) for each protein were normalized against that of β-actin (40 kDa). The intensity of the band in the Sed-ZL group was assigned a value of 1. Values are means ± SEM (n = 5/group). * p<0.05, ** p<0.01 compared with the Sed-ZL group; † p<0.05, †† p<0.01 compared with the Sed-ZDF group.