TITLE: Hemoglobin: Nitric Oxide Destroyer, Preserver or Creator?

SPEAKER: Professor Dany Kim-Shapiro,

TIME: Thursday Nov. 10, 2005 at 4:00 PM

PLACE: George P. Williams, Jr. Lecture Hall, (Olin 101)

Nitric oxide (NO) is the endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). It is made in endothelial cells lining blood vessels and diffuses to smooth muscle cells where it leads to muscle relaxation, vessel dilatation, and increased blood flow. Hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying molecule in the blood, reacts at nearly diffusion limited rates with nitric oxide to (in some reactions) form nitrate ands thereby destroy NO activity. The presence of such large amounts of such a potent NO scavenger in the blood challenges the idea that NO is indeed the EDRF. Several mechanisms have been proposed to account for how NO activity is preserved by hemoglobin in the blood. Biophysical experiments will be described exploring and evaluating these mechanisms. In addition, studies of how hemoglobin can actually create NO activity by the reduction of the nitrite anion will be presented. These studies will be discussed in terms of the relation to physiology, pathophysiology, and disease.

Professor John Simon's colloquium will be rescheduled for another time.

100 Olin Physical Laboratory, 7507 Reynolda Station Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7507 Phone: (336) 758-5337, FAX: (336) 758-6142 E-mail: wfuphys@wfu.edu	Quick Links Academics Research People Colloquia Info Physics