Preface to the Special Section Nitric Oxide in Medicine

Abstract

It became evident that the endothelial organ can be appreciated as 'the largest organ in the body—equivalent in mass to five normal hearts and in area to six tennis courts in a 70-kg man' (1), when Moncada et al. (2) reported, in 1976, that an enzyme had been isolated in the vascular wall that transformed prostaglandin endoperoxides to an unstable substance (known today as prostacyclin) and that inhibited platelet aggregation and caused vasodilatation. As far as the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is concerned, the vital importance of a healthy and intact vascular endothelium has long been known. Interest in the vascular wall grew further when, in 1980, Furchgott and Zawadski (3) reported their observation that the presence of endothelium is obligatory for acetylcholine induced vasorelaxation. The factor lacking when an endothelium was damaged was named endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF) by Furchgott. This report has stimulated research exponentially (the number of publications in 1994 reached more than 2000) on the smallest transmitter molecule shown to be nitric oxide (NO) (4, 5).