Figure 1.

The delivery process of nitric oxide (NO) in physiological and atherosclerotic arteries. (a) At physiological sites, NO is mainly released by endothelial cells modulated by the shear flow. The released NO would be quickly delivered to neighboring arterial walls, leading to vasodilation. The diffusion, convection, and reaction processes of NO are shown in the schematic diagram. (b) In atherosclerotic arteries, in addition to the delivery process in physiological arteries, massive amounts of NO would release from the activated macrophages in the lipid core and the released NO would be synchronously consumed by hemoglobin in the intraplaque hemorrhage.