Determination of leukotrienes and prostaglandins in [14C] arachidonic acid labelled human lung tissue by high-performance liquid chromatography and radioimmunoassay.

A liquid chromatographic method for the determination of 14C-labelled prostaglandins, leukotrienes and other lipoxygenase products formed by human lung tissue is described. In this paper we report our problems identifying these substances when 3H- or 14C-labelled compounds are compared with measurements of the mass by absorption or radioimmunoassay. Furthermore, some preliminary results of [14C] arachidonic acid labelled human lung tissue, stimulated by the Ca-ionophore A23187, show that, of the lipoxygenase products, mostly leukotriene B4 like compounds are formed and less leukotriene C4, E4 and D4. Relatively large amounts of hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids are present. The main cyclooxygenase products are thromboxane B2, 6-ketoprostaglandin F1 alpha and prostaglandin D2.