Prostaglandins: bone resorption stimulating factors released from monkey gingiva.

Gingival fragments from monkeys have been found to release a factor in vitro into incubation medium which stimulates bone resorption in organ culture. Indomethacin effectively blocks the occurrence of this stimulatory factor in the gingival incubation medium. All of this bone resorptive activity can be accounted for by prostaglandin-like material. The prostaglandins contributing to the bone resorptive activity have been found to be prostaglandins E1 and E2.