Reactive-oxygen formation and its relationship to prostaglandin and cyclic AMP production by zymosan-treated rat peritoneal macrophages.
Addition of zymosan (20 particles/cell) to suspensions of resident rat peritoneal macrophages caused an increase in the concns of prostaglandins and cyclic AMP. Preincubation of the cells with inhibitors of arachidonate metabolism led to inhibition of prostaglandin, but not of cyclic AMP, formation, which suggested that the two processes may occur independently of each other in phagocytosing cells. The luminol-dependent chemiluminescence associated with the addition of zymosan to the cells consisted of a minor, Ca2+-dependent, glucose-independent component and a major, glucose-dependent, Ca2+-independent component. Only the minor, Ca2+-dependent component appeared to be related to the lipoxygenation of arachidonic acid. Close examination of the production of prostaglandins and cyclic AMP and of chemiluminescence after zymosan addition, indicated that the expanded pool of endogenous cyclic AMP was probably not a negative modulator of the other two processes, although they remained susceptible to inhibition by exogenously-added cyclic AMP analogues or PGE2. The events induced by zymosan may be relevant to the physiological roles of prostaglandins during the inflammatory response.