We investigated the effects of therapeutic hypothermia (30 degrees C) on alterations in constitutive (cNOS) and inducible (iNOS) nitric oxide synthase activities following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized with 0.5% halothane and underwent moderate (1.8-2.2 atm) parasagittal fluid-percussion (F-P) brain injury. In normothermic rats (37 degrees C) the enzymatic activity of cNOS was significantly increased at 5 min within the injured cerebral cortex compared with contralateral values (286.5+/-68.9% of contralateral value; mean+/-SEM). This rise in nitric oxide synthase activity was significantly reduced with pretraumatic hypothermia (138.8+/-17% of contralateral value; p < 0.05). At 3 and 7 days after normothermic TBI the enzymatic activity of cNOS was decreased significantly (30+/-8.4 and 28.6+/-20.9% of contralateral value, respectively; p < 0.05). However, immediate posttraumatic hypothermia (3 h at 30 degrees C) preserved cNOS activity at 3 and 7 days (69.5+/-23.3 and 78.6+/-7.6% of contralateral value, respectively; mean+/-SEM; p < 0.05). Posttraumatic hypothermia also significantly reduced iNOS activity at 7 days compared with normothermic rats (0.021+/-0.06 and 0.23+/-0.06 pmol/mg of protein/min, respectively; p < 0.05). The present results indicate that hypothermia (a) decreases early cNOS activation after TBI, (b) preserves cNOS activity at later periods, and (c) prevents the delayed induction of iNOS. Temperature-dependent alterations in cNOS and iNOS enzymatic activities may participate in the neuroprotective effect of hypothermia in this TBI model.