Abstract
Secretagogue-induced saliva of the tick Amblyomma americanum (L.) was fractionated by reversed-phase-high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and bioassayed in smooth muscle preparations. Material with retention times of authentic prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2) and prostaglandin F 2α (PGF 2α) were found to cause contraction of preparations of rat colon and rat stomach strips. Gas chromatography-mass spectra of selected ions of both HPLC-purified fractions confirmed the existence of PGE 2 and PGF 2α. Bioassay of individual samples obtained from ticks stimulated to salivate with pilocarpine, dopamine + theophiline, or dopamine + theophiline + GABA indicated that all these secretagogues induced similar amounts of prostaglandin secretion, averaging 469 ng PGE 2/ml. These pharmacological doses of prostaglandin are hypothesized to assist in tick feeding by inducing vasodilation and/or other pharmacological events in their hosts.
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