AIM To study the relationship between nitric oxide (NO), nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and humanhepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).METHODS Plsama NO2-/NO3- was measured by Griess reaction in 122 patients with chronic hepatitis(CH) and compensated liver cirrhosis (LC), among which 62 patients were complicated with HCC(CH = 28, LC = 34), and the rest 60 patients were not (CH = 29, LC = 31). Thirty healthy persons served asnormal controls (NC). There were no prominent differences among the groups in sex, age and the ratio ofCH to LC. The expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in HCC (n = 40), CH (n = 30) and LC(n = 30) samples obtained from liver biopsy or operation was compared with that in normal liver tissues byusing immunohistochemistry. Ten normal liver tissue samples obtained from liver operation served as normalcontrols. The samples were fixed in formalin and embeded in paraffin. Anti-iNOS antibody (Santacruzcompany) was served as antibody-Ⅰ in immunohistochemical assay of iNOS in tissue.RESULTS Plasma NO2-/NO3- level in normal was 11.5 μmol/L±4.2μmol/L. The plasma level ofNO2 /NO3- in CH (58.6±17.4 μmol/L) and LC (38.7±10.6μmol/L) accompanied with HCC wasnotably higher than in those patients without HCC (CH: 24.8±9.4 μmol/L; LC: 22.3±8.7μmol/L,t=2.901, 2.756, P