Analysis of the nitric oxide-cyclic guanosine monophosphate pathway in experimental liver cirrhosis suggests phosphodiesterase-5 as potential target to treat portal hypertension

Table 2 Mean ± standard deviation of enzyme gene expression

	CON (n = 11) Mean ± SD	FIB (n = 6) Mean ± SD	CIR (n = 8) Mean ± SD
eNOS (fold exp.)	1.0 ± 0.4	1.5 ± 0.3'	2.2 ± 1.0
iNOS (fold exp.)	n.d.1	4.6 ± 3.0	5.3 ± 2.3
PDE5 (fold exp.)	1.0 ± 1.0	7.7 ± 0.9	11.0 ± 3.1
sGCa1 (fold exp.)	1.0 ± 0.3	1.4 ± 0.3	1.7 ± 0.4
sGCb1 (fold exp.)	1.0 ± 0.5	2.1 ± 0.3	3.0 ± 1.3

¹Since iNOS expression in CON was below detection limit, it was arbitrarily set to “1.0”. iNOS: Inducible NO synthase.

Fold expression is referring to CON. qRT-PCRs were performed in duplicates, thus values are based on mean values of duplicates.