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Several studies have reported that prostanoids are involved in many of the physiopathological mechanisms underlying acute pancreatitis but their precise role in this disease remains to be established. The objective of this work is to evaluate the variation of local tissue production of prostanoids and lipoxygenase metabolites of arachidonic acid in acute pancreas inflammation induced by intraductal administration of 3.5% sodium taurocholate (0.1 ml/100 mg body weight) in rats. Pancreatic tissue levels of leukotriene B4 (LTB4), 15 hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (15-HETE), 6-keto prostaglandin F1 alpha (6-keto PGF1 alpha), thromboxane B2 (TXB2) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) were determined by HPLC-RIA techniques at 5 and 60 minutes after induction of acute pancreatitis (AP). Prostanoids increased significantly at 5 minutes and LTB4 and 15-HETE at 60 minutes. These data confirm that the prostanoid imbalance could be considered as an early specific response of the pancreas to the inflammatory events characteristic of induced AP while the altered levels of the lipoxygenase products (LTB4 and 15-HETE) would be more of a nonspecific organ response associated to the high cellular infiltration rate and necrosis observed in the late phases of acute pancreatitis.

N-phenyllinoleamide (NPLA), the anilide of linoleic acid, has been associated with the epidemiology of Toxic Oil Syndrome, but no data are available on its metabolism. On account of the similarity in chemical structure between the linoleic acid and NPLA, the aim of this study has been to investigate the oxidative metabolism of this xenobiotic by the human nasal polyp, a tissue with elevated 15-lipoxygenase activity. For this purpose, tissue homogenates have been incubated for 2 h with NPLA (0.1 mM) spiked with either N-(ring G-3H)PLA (0.2 microCi/ml) or N-P(1-14C)LA (0.05 microCi/ml). Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of the high performance liquid radiochromatographic fractions shows that the 9,12,13-trihydroxy, 12,13-epoxy-11-hydroxy and 13-hydroxy NPLA derivatives are the major metabolites. These results revealed that NPLA metabolites are chemical structures related to the linoleic acid derivatives, some of which may show biological activity.