Expression of rat brain nitric oxide synthase in baculovirus-infected insect cells and characterization of the purified enzyme

Rat brain nitric oxide synthase was expressed to a high level in baculovirus-infected insect cells and purified to apparent homogeneity by affinity chromatography. The enzyme had a specific activity of approximately 1 mumol of citrulline.min-1.mg of protein-1 and contained 0.93, 0.45, 0.18 and 0.23 mol of haem, (6R)-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-L-biopterin (H4biopterin), FAD and FMN per mol of subunit respectively.