Specificity of the effect of lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid on calcium homeostasis in neutrophils. Correlation with functional activity.

The ability of the major neutrophil-derived lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid to increase the rate of 45Ca influx in rabbit neutrophils was examined. The results obtained demonstrate that (5S),(12R)-dihydroxy-6,8,11,14-(cis,trans,trans,cis)-eicosatetraenoic acid (leukotriene B4) is the most active of the arachidonic acid metabolites. The activity of leukotriene B4 is highly stereospecific in that its three nonenzymatically derived isomers are essentially inactive. The omega-hydroxylation of leukotriene B4 results in a compound that is nearly as active as leukotriene B4 as far as its ability to stimulate calcium influx and neutrophil aggregation while being a much weaker secretagogue. The further conversion of leukotriene B4 into a dicarboxylic acid removes all detectable biological activity. 5,6-Oxido-7,9,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid (leukotriene A4) methyl ester was also found to increase the rate of calcium influx, while the degradation products of native leukotriene A4 were essentially inactive. These results demonstrate that a close correlation exists between the ability of the various lipoxygenase products to alter calcium homeostasis in rabbit neutrophils and their biological activities.