Introduction. Nitric oxide (NO) produced by NO synthases (NOS) is involved in the regulation of vital physiological functions. At the same time, NO and NOS are involved in events associated with the tumor process: mutagenesis, proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, etc., exerting a multidirectional effect on the tumor.Objectives – analyze and summarize literature data concerning the role of NO and endothelial NOS (eNOS) in the initiation and progression of tumors, as well as in the inhibition of tumor growth.Materials and methods. In preparing the review, publications of information bases of biomedical literature were used: SciVerse Scopus (538), PubMed (1327), Web of Science (905), Russian Science Citation Index (125).Results. The molecular mechanisms of the action of NO and its derivatives on the initiation and progression of carcinogenesis have been explored. Numerous factors and conditions regulating the activity of eNOS in health and tumor growth have been analyzed. The molecular signaling pathways through which the pro-tumor effects of NO and eNOS, stimulating angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, are realized, including through the mobilization of stem cells, are considered.Conclusion. Nitric oxide produced by activated eNOS promotes tumor progression by increasing the proliferation of tumor cells, enhancing the action of pro-angiogenic factors, stimulating angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and metastasis. Selective inhibition of increased eNOS activity may be a promising therapeutic approach aimed at reducing metastasis and tumor growth.

The basal layer of mouse skin epidermis consists of special structures - rosettes functionally arranged in zones including about 20 rosettes. The rosette contains a central cambial cell; after division of this cell the mother cell remains in the center of the rosette and the daughter cell migrated to the center of a free rosette. The mother and daughter cells are dipole cells (sources of electric field). If the disposition of mother cells is unidirectional and they predominate over daughter cells, the latter cells transform into other cells, i. e. are differentiated.

Studies of mouse ear epidermis showed that proliferative activity of basal epidermal cells has two active and two passive phases throughout 24 h. Active phases consist of two subphases: long (proliferation of cambial cell descendants) and very short (cambial cell proliferation). Cambial cells proliferate at the boundary between active and passive phases; this results in an increase in the counts of epidermal melanocytes and Langerhans cells resultant from division of epidermal cambial cells. The count of Langerhans cells almost 2-fold surpasses melanocyte count, because melanocytes gradually transform into epidermal basal cells.