In the heart, NOS3 is mainly found in the caveolae of coronary vascular endothelium, whereas cardiomyocytes constitutively express NOS1 and NOS3 in different subcellular structures, while inducible NOS2 expression can be triggered by several stimuli, including infections, heart failure and ischemia/reperfusion (Brown and Borutaite, 2007; Tullio et al., 2013; Penna et al., 2014a). Here, NOS3 is linked to infection.