DISTRIBUTION OF PROSTAGLANDINS IN HUMAN TISSUES

Abstract

It has recently become apparent that prostaglandins are not confined to the genital tract, and that their importance may be much greater than was first envisaged when these fatty acid derivatives were first chemically identified in semen Prostaglandins are known to possess smooth muscle contracting activity and may well have important physiological roles as mediators of local responses. Isolated observations on the prostaglandin content of a few extragenital organs in various animals have been docu- mented, and prostaglandins have been found in lungs in various animals: calf thymus, bovine pancreas (Bergstrom, 1964), sheep iris (Angga'rd However, no systematic survey of prostaglandin distribution in a wide variety of tissues has been carried out in any animal, and the occurrence of prostaglandins in human tissues is less well documented than in other species. We have therefore estimated the concentrations of prostaglandins present in 23 types of human tissues.