L-Arginine Suplementation in Arterial Hypertension — Facts and Controversies

Abstract

Since the discovery of L-Arginine (L-Arg) as a natural metabolic supplier of nitric oxide (NO) this amino acid has attracted a lot of attention from scientific community. In many researches when L-Arg was given orally or intravenously dilation of peripheral blood vessels, endothelial function improvement and greater NO production were observed. It was concluded that vasodilatative L-Arg action was due to increased accessibility of intracellular substrate for NO synthesis. Soon it occurred that L-Arg intracellular concentration far exceeded the Km (substrate concentration at which the reaction velocity is half maximal) of the NO synthase. Many experimental and clinical studies were conducted to find out beneficial influence of L-Arg on cardiovascular system. Particular attention was paid to role of dysfunction L-Arg-NO pathway in hypertension. There are more and more proves that L-Arg supplementation is advantageous to patients with hypertension.