Recent studies have implicated dysfunctional endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) as a common pathogenic pathway in diabetic vascular complications. However, functional consequences are still incompletely understood. To determine the role of eNOS-derived nitric oxide (NO) in diabetic nephropathy, we induced diabetes in eNOS knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice on the C57BL6 background, using low-dose streptozotocin injection, and we investigated their glomerular phenotype at up to 20 weeks of diabetes. Although the severity of hyperglycemia in diabetic eNOS KO mice was similar to diabetic WT mice, diabetic eNOS KO mice developed overt albuminuria, hypertension, and glomerular mesangiolysis, whereas diabetic WT and nondiabetic control mice did not. Glomerular hyperfiltration was also significantly reduced in diabetic eNOS KO mice. Electron micrographs from diabetic eNOS KO mice revealed an injured endothelial morphology, thickened glomerular basement membrane, and focal foot process effacement. Furthermore, the anionic sites at glomeru- Nitric oxide (NO) is a free radical that mediates diverse functions in a range of biological systems.1 NO is produced by a family of nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) enzymes to catalyze the stoichiometric five-electron oxidation of the terminal quanidino group of L-arginine to produce NO and L-citrulline. Three NOS isoforms have been distinguished in mammalian species: neuronal NOS, inducible NOS, which is expressed in a variety of activated tissues, and endothelial NOS (eNOS).1 In the vasculature, NO is mostly generated by eNOS, and the generated NO plays a crucial role in maintaining vascular homeostasis, including vascular tone, leukocyte adhesion to endothelium, proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, and platelet aggregation and adhesion to the vessel wall.