Objective-Endothelial dysfunction is an early manifestation of cigarette smoke (CS) toxicity. We have previously demonstrated that CS impairs nitric oxide (NO)-mediated endothelial function via increased generation of superoxide anion (O 2 . ). In these studies, we investigated whether stable compounds present in CS activate specific pathways responsible for the increased endothelial O 2 . production.Methods and Results-Short exposure of bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells (BPAECs), human pulmonary artery endothelial cells, and rat pulmonary arteries to CS extracts (CSEs) resulted in a large increase in O 2 . production (20-fold, 3-fold, and 2-fold increase, respectively; PϽ0.05 versus control), which was inhibited by the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase inhibitors diphenyleneiodinium, apocynin, and gp91 docking sequence-tat peptide but not by oxypurinol, the NO synthase inhibitor N G -nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, or the mitochondrial respiration inhibitor rotenone. Exposure of BPAECs to acrolein, a stable thiol-reactive agent found in CS, increased O 2. production 5-fold, which was prevented by prior inhibition of NADPH oxidase.
Conclusions-These