Occurrence of oxidized metabolites of arachidonic acid esterified to phospholipids in murine lung tissue.

Isolation and characterization of murine pulmonary phospholipids revealed the normal occurrence of 10 isobaric eicosanoids corresponding to the incorporation of one oxygen atom into the arachidonate esterified to glycerophospholipids. Lungs from mice were removed and lipids were extracted and then separated into free carboxylic acid and phospholipids. Phospholipids were hydrolyzed to yield the free carboxylic acids prior to analysis. Reverse-phase HPLC and electrospray tandem mass spectrometry were used to identify and quantitate six monohydroxyeicosatetraenoic (HETE) and four epoxyeicosatetraenoic (EET) acid regioisomers using d8-HETE as internal standard. HETEs esterified to phospholipids were found to increase following intratracheal administration of tBuOOH (36 mg/kg), but not the levels of esterified EETs. Chiral analysis of esterified 15-HETE revealed an R/S ratio of 0.96, suggesting operation of a free radical mechanism responsible for generation of this monohydroxy arachidonate phospholipid, and this enantiomeric ratio was 1.10 following treatment of the mouse lung with tBuOOH. These results are consistent with a free-radical-based mechanism of oxidation of pulmonary glycerophospholipids containing arachidonate.