Nitric Oxide Measurement System

Nitric oxide (NO) plays a major role in a variety of mammalian biological processes including blood pressure homeostatisis, immune regulation, transmission of signals by the nervous system, and platelet aggregation. The production of nitric oxide is difficult to measure directly due to its very short physiological half life (1 to 40 seconds) and the extremely small quantities (picomolar) which are produced.

In order to get around the problem of direct measurement of NO, analytical techniques have been developed which determine the stable end products of NO oxidation, namely NO3-and NO2- ions. NO2- is commonly measured using a Griess colorimetric assay. This technique usually requires the reduction of NO3- to NO2- using either chemical or enzymatic methods.

Because the Griess method involves several chemical conversion steps it often gives inaccurate results due to incomplete yields and environmental factors such as temperature and age of the Griess reagents. Other drawbacks with the Griess methods include tedious and time consuming steps, especially in the reduction of NO3 to NO2, and high cost per sample.

The revolutionary Lazar ArrowStraight(TM) NO Measurement System directly measures both NO2 and NO3 ions without any intermediate chemical reactions. This method significantly increases accuracy while saving time and cost. This system is simple to use and comes complete with an analyzer program that records results on your PC.