[A study on the effect of cortisol and progesterone on cytosolic arachidonic and palmitic acid concentrations in cultured human myometrial cells].

Glucocorticoids inhibit prostaglandin synthesis in several cell types, presumably by inhibiting arachidonic acid deacylation from phospholipids. We studied the effects of cortisol (F) and progesterone (P) on fatty acid release from cultured human myometrial cells. Confluent monolayer cultures of myometrial cells were adapted to steroids containing medium for 24 hours and the intracellular arachidonic acid and palmitic acid concentrations were determined. In the presence of fetal calf serum (FCS), the palmitic acid concentrations significantly decreased after the addition of 10(-7)M F. In the absence of FCS, the concentrations of both fatty acids were markedly increased after the addition of F. During oxytocin stimulation, the arachidonic acid concentration did not change but the palmitic acid concentration decreased slightly after the addition of F. A similar evaluation was done with P. The palmitic acid concentration decreased slightly after the addition of 10(-5)M P in the presence of FCS but increased markedly in the absence of FCS. During stimulation with oxytocin, the fatty concentrations of fatty acids decreased significantly in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that both F and P are implicated as regulatory factors in the activation of arachidonic acid cascade.