Glucose availability limits microglial nitric oxide production

摘要: Metabolic intermediates influence inflammation not only through signaling effects, but also by fueling the production of pro‐inflammatory molecules. Microglial production of nitric oxide (NO) requires the consumption of NADPH. NADPH consumed in this process is regenerated from NADP+ primarily through the hexose monophosphate shunt, which can utilize only glucose as a substrate. These factors predict that glucose availability can be rate‐limiting for glial NO production. To test this prediction, cultured astrocytes and microglia were incubated with lipopolysaccharide and interferon‐γ to promote expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, and the rate of NO production was assessed at defined glucose concentrations. Increased NO production was detected only in cultures containing microglia. The NO production was markedly slowed at glucose concentrations below 0.5 mM, and comparably reduced by …