Fig. 5

Summary scheme showing cigarette smoking-induced vascular dysfunction within the NO/sGC/cGMP pathway. Cigarette smoking induces endothelial dysfunction but does not affect the balance between NO-sensitive and NO-insensitive forms of sGC. ACh acetylcholine, eNOS endothelial nitric oxide synthase, NO nitric oxide, sGC soluble guanylate cyclase, SNP sodium nitroprusside