HUMAN NEUTROPHIL CHEMOTAXIS IN RESPONSE TO DIEPOXIDES OF LINOLENIC ACID

Diepoxides of linolenic acid were found to be chemoattractants. The co ncentration that produces 50% of maximal chemotaxis was 4.5 10(-7) mol /l for human neutrophils when investigated in a chemotaxis test based on the method of spectrophotometric determination of myeloperoxidase a ctivity with buffers containing bovine serum albumin. Leukotriene B-4 was used as positive control. The concentration of leukotriene B-4 tha t produces 50% of maximal chemotaxis was 1.8 nmol/l. No chemotactic ac tivity was observed when monoepoxides of linoleic or linolenic acid, d iepoxides of linoleic acid or triepoxides of linolenic acid were used. Mono-, di- and triepoxides of polyunsaturated fatty acids were synthe sized with metachloroperbenzoic acid, separated by TLC and HPLC and id entified by GC/MS.