Abstract

Contractile responses to leukotriene (LT)C4, LTD4 and LTE4 were examined in intralobar airways from human lung obtained after surgical resection. In addition, the ability of the LT receptor antagonist FPL55712 to antagonize responses to LTC4 and LTD4 was quantified (by calculating -log molar KB values) under experimental conditions designed to minimize metabolic transformation of the LTs. In the absence of drug pretreatment, the three peptide LTs were approximately equipotent and produced similar maximum degrees of contraction. L-Serine borate complex, 45 mM, used as an inhibitor of the degradation of LTC4 to LTD4 by the enzyme gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, in paired airway segments (adjacent segments from the same branch), produced a small degree (about 3-fold) of shift to the right of the dose-response curve and reduction of the maximum response to LTC4. L-Cysteine, 3 mM, used as an inhibitor of the degradation of LTD4 to LTE4 by the enzyme aminopeptidase, in paired segments, did not alter the dose-response effects of LTD4 or appear to further alter the dose-response effects of LTC4 when applied together with L-serine borate complex in unpaired (nonadjacent) segments. The -log molar KB value for FPL55712 (about 6) was similar for antagonism of responses to both LTC4 and LTD4 in the absence or presence of treatment with the metabolic inhibitors L-serine borate complex, L-cysteine or a combination of the two treatments. The results suggest that inhibition of the enzymes involved in the pathway from LTC4 to LTE4 has little consequence in human airways because the three peptide LTs are approximately equipotent.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)