NOS1 and Hypercholesterolemia: In addition, Nakata et al. [32] found that statins, drugs that can lower cholesterol in hypercholesterolemia patients, could upregulate nNOS expression in human endothelial cells, rat vascular smooth muscle cells, and mouse aorta, suggesting that statins may reduce the risk for stroke in a novel vascular mechanism which is independent of cholesterol-lowering effect of nNOS.