Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2021 Jul 20;12:720703. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.720703

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

Copyright © 2021 Verbeure, van Goor, Mori, van Beek, Tack and van Dijk.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

PMC Copyright notice

The carbon monoxide (CO) pathway including involved substrates, enzymes and downstream pathways. CO is produced during the catabolism of haem by two oxygenase proteins, HO-1 and HO-2, but it can also be released in small amounts by intestinal bacteria. Interestingly, several exogenous substrates to induce the pathway exist. CO prefers binding hemoglobin, and this complex has a long half-life time up to 4 h. CO’s biological functions are related to the activation of sGC; subsequently influencing cGMP, but other pathways such as the COX or inhibition of cytochrome P450 have also been explored. HO-1, Haem oxygenase 1; HO-2, Haem oxygenase 2; COHb, CO-haemoglobin complex; sGC, Soluble guanylyl cyclase; cGMP, Cyclic guanosine monophosphate; COX, Cyclo-oxygenase.