Comparison of 5- and 15-lipoxygenase activities in blood and alveolar leukocyte preparations from normal subjects and patients with eosinophilia.

The arachidonic acid lipoxygenase metabolites of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) preparations obtained from 31 subjects with eosinophilia (eosinophil content of PMNL preparations: 27.0%, 4-73, median with range) and 29 normal donors (4.5%, 0-15) were analyzed by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. More leukotriene (LT) C4 and 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (HETE) (p less than 0.001) and less LTB4 (p less than 0.005) were found in eosinophil-rich preparations in comparison to controls on incubations with ionophore and arachidonic acid. In incubations with arachidonic acid alone, only small amounts of 5-lipoxygenase metabolites were produced by both groups, but the PMNL preparations from patients with eosinophilia showed higher capacity to release LTC4 and 15-HETE (p less than 0.005). In the eosinophil-rich preparations, the percentage of eosinophils correlated positively with the production of LTC4 and negatively with LTB4 (p less than 0.05, incubations with ionophore +/- arachidonic acid), and positively with 15-HETE (p less than 0.01, incubations with arachidonic acid +/- ionophore). Moreover the eosinophil-rich preparations produced more LTC4 per eosinophil in incubations with arachidonic acid alone (p less than 0.001) than normal PMNL preparations. The predominant release of LTC4 and 15-HETE by eosinophils was further confirmed by the analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage cells. Lavage cells containing eosinophils released LTC4 and 15-HETE while normal bronchoalveolar lavages, which were poor in eosinophils, did not produce detectable amount of LTC4 and 15-HETE. These results show that eosinophils release preferentially LTC4 and 15-HETE in contrast to LTB4 for the neutrophils.