Figure 3.

Eicosanoid levels in control and ischaemic injured tissues before and after a 240 minute recovery period. (A) Prostaglandin E₁ and E₂ (PGE) levels were significantly reduced at the 60 minute time period by indomethacin and SC-560. PGE levels were significantly higher in ischaemic injured tissues at 240 minutes compared with control tissues. Tissues treated with NS-398 had significant reductions compared with untreated tissues whereas SC-560 had no significant effect on PGE production at 240 minutes. (B) 6-keto-PGF_1α (the stable metabolite of prostaglandin I₂ (PGI₂)) levels showed trends similar to those of PGE levels, including significant inhibition at 240 minutes by indomethacin and NS-398. (C) Levels of thromboxane B₂ (TXB₂, the stable metabolite of TXA₂) were measured as a potential indicator of COX-1 activity. Accordingly, TXB₂ levels were elevated to the same degree in control tissues, ischaemic injured tissues, and tissues treated with the COX-2 inhibitor NS-398 at both time periods. However, tissues treated with indomethacin had no significant elevations in TXB₂ during the recovery period, and tissues treated with SC-560 had levels significantly below those of untreated tissues at both 60 minutes and 240 minutes. Significance was determined using one way ANOVA at each time period, n=8. Treatments with different letters at each time period were significantly different from one another.