NOS3 and myocardial ischemia: The first indication of an in vivo relevance of blood eNOS was put forward by creation of irradiated and bone marrow transplanted mice (chimeras) that were lacking eNOS in blood; these chimera mice present a hypertensive phenotype along with decreased circulating nitrite and nitrate levels (196), as well as increased infarct sizes after myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (73, 125).