Effects of oxidative and nitrosative stress in cytotoxicity.

Nitric oxide is a key bioregulatory agent in a wide variety of biological processes, yet it also can have cytotoxic properties. This dichotomy raises the question of how this potentially toxic species can be involved in so many fundamental physiological processes. This articles discusses how the chemistry of nitric oxide might pertain to its observed biology as it relates to oxidative and nitrosative stress in different mechanisms of cytotoxicity.