The fatty acid oxygenase activity of mesothelial cells and its role in
inflammatory and neoplastic diseases of the mesothelium have not been
defined. Techniques permitting in vitro cultivation of human mesothel
ial cells shed into serous cavities have permitted analysis of their s
pecific metabolic capacities. The principal products of incubations of
cultured human mesothelial cells with polyunsaturated fatty acids wer
e analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography on reversed-,
straight-, and chiral-phase columns and gas-liquid chromatography/mass
spectrometry. The products included 6-keto-PGF1alpha, 15-hydroxyeicos
atetraenoic acid (S/R = 3.5), 11-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, and 12-
hydroxyheptadecatrienoic acid from arachidonic acid; 9-and 13-hydroxyo
ctadecadienoic acids (molar ratio of 9/13-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acids
= 3.5, S/R ratios = 0.3 and 2.8, respectively) from linoleic acid; an
d 12-hydroxyheptadecadienoic acid from homo-gamma-linolenic acid. Thes
e products are indicative of a cyclooxygenase whose activation in vivo
may play a significant role in serosal cavity pathology.