Abstract—A growing body of evidence has shown that Fas, a death receptor, mediates apoptosis-unrelated biological effects. Here, we report that Fas engagement with Fas ligand induced activation of Akt and upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression without induction of apoptosis. In the presence of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin, Fas ligand, however, induced apoptosis instead of upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression. In vivo, systolic blood pressure was slightly higher in mutant mice with decreased cell surface Fas expression (lprmice) compared with wild-type mice. In addition, chronic inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis byNG-nitro-l-arginine induced a progressive increase in the levels of blood pressure in wild-type mice, whereas no further increase in the levels of blood pressure was observed inlprmice. Furthermore, acetylcholine caused a lesser endothelium-dependent relaxation of the strips fromlprmice compared with wild-type mice, although the vasoconstrictor potency of phenylephrine was not different between the two groups. These findings indicate that Fas signaling may have a role in the regulation of endothelial function and blood pressure through modulating endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression in the Akt signal-dependent manner.