Distribution of dietary nitrate and its metabolites in rat tissues after ¹⁵N-labeled nitrate administration

The reduction pathway of nitrate (NO₃⁻) and nitrite (NO₂⁻) to nitric oxide (NO) contributes to regulating many physiological processes. To examine the rate and extent of dietary nitrate absorption and its reduction to nitrite, we supplemented rat diets with Na¹⁵NO₃-containing water (1 g/L) and collected plasma, urine and several tissue samples. We found that plasma and urine showed 8.8- and 11.7-fold increases respectively in total nitrate concentrations in 1-day supplementation group compared to control. In tissue samples—gluteus, liver and eyes—we found 1.7-, 2.4- and 4.2-fold increases respectively in 1-day supplementation group. These increases remained similar in 3-day supplementation group. LC–MS/MS analysis showed that the augmented nitrate concentrations were primarily from the exogenously provided ¹⁵N-nitrate. Overall nitrite concentrations and percent of ¹⁵N-nitrite were also greatly increased in all samples after nitrate supplementation; eye homogenates showed larger increases compared to gluteus and liver. Moreover, genes related to nitrate transport and reduction (Sialin, CLC and XOR) were upregulated after nitrate supplementation for 3 days in muscle (Sialin 2.3-, CLC1 1.3-, CLC3 2.1-, XOR 2.4-fold) and eye (XOR 1.7-fold) homogenates. These results demonstrate that dietary nitrate is quickly absorbed into circulation and tissues, and it can be reduced to nitrite in tissues (and likely to NO) suggesting that nitrate-enriched diets can be an efficient intervention to enhance nitrite and NO bioavailability.