L-arginine supplementation improves endothelial dysfunction in MELAS patients. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Endothelial dysfunction in MELAS improved by l-arginine supplementation.
Neurology. 2006 Jun 13;66(11):1766-9. PMID: 16769961
Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan. [email protected]
The authors evaluated endothelial function in patients with MELAS (mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke) by flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and found a significant decrease vs controls. Two years of supplementation with oral l-arginine, a nitric oxide precursor, significantly improved endothelial function to control levels and was harmonized with the normalized plasma levels of l-arginine in patients. l-Arginine therapy improved endothelial dysfunction and showed promise in treating strokelike episodes in MELAS.