Enhancement of prostaglandin synthesizing activity by the treatment with sodium n-butyrate on cloned mastocytoma cells and various other tissue cell lines.

We have compared the effects of n-butyrate on the prostaglandin synthesizing activities of cloned mouse mastocytoma cells, and various other tissue culture cell lines. Cells were treated with 1 mM n-butyrate for 40 hrs before harvesting. Prostaglandin synthesizing activities of the treated and the control cells were examined in a cell-free assay system. The treatment of some of the cloned mastocytoma cells with n-butyrate brought about the synthesis of prostaglandin D2, E2 and F2 alpha that were not synthesized by the control cells. The treatment of epithelial liver cells (BC-90) also resulted in the formation of 6-keto-prostaglandin F1 alpha which was not formed by the control cells. However, n-butyrate caused relatively small changes in the prostaglandin synthesizing activities of other clones of mastocytoma cells, mouse hepatoma cells, HeLa cells, rat granuloma cells and human embryonic fibroblasts. These data suggest differential effects of n-butyrate on different types of cultured cells.