Excess vessel wall thickening in mice lacking NOS3 was partially reversed by simultaneous deletion of MMP-13, indicating that NOS3 prevents neointimal hyperplasia by preventing MMP-13 activity.
In this study, we examined the hypothesis that overexpression of vasculoprotective gene endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in EPCs enhances their ability to inhibit neointimal hyperplasia.