An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2024 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

16061 entries, 14144 authors and 1947 subjects. Updated: December 10, 2024

Permanent Link for Entry #16565

  • 14246

The obligatory role of endothelial cells in the relaxation of arterial smooth muscle by acetylcholine.

Nature, 288, 373-376, 1980.

In 1978 Furchgott discovered a substance in endothelial cells that relaxes blood vessels, calling it endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). By 1986, he had worked out EDRF's nature and mechanism of action, and determined that EDRF was in fact nitric oxide (NO), an important compound in many aspects of cardiovascular physiology. 

See also: "Studies on relaxation of rabbit aorta by sodium nitrite: the basis for the proposal that the acid-activatable inhibtory factor from retractor penis in inorganic nitrite and the endothelium-derived relaxing factor is nitric oxide" IN: Vasodilatation: Vascular smooth muscle, petides, and endothelium, edited by P. M. Vanhoutte, (1988) 401-414.

In 1998 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad "for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system."



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › CARDIOVASCULAR PHYSIOLOGY › Cardiovascular System, NOBEL PRIZES › Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
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