Leukotriene receptors: state of the art.

Abstract

The leukotrienes (cysLTs) are lipid mediators derived from the ubiquitous membrane component arachidonic acid. The plethora of biological activities suggested that they activate different receptors. A number of elegant genetic and biochemical studies have been performed to elucidate the nature of these receptors. Results from classical pharmacological and molecular studies indicate that there are two main classes of leukotriene receptors. One based on the biological activities of leukotriene B4 and related hydroxyacids, referred to as BLT receptors, and a second class identified by the cysteinyl- leukotrienes (cysLTs). Activation of the BLT receptors initially was shown to produce potent chemotactic activities on leukocytes whereas the latter class (CysLT receptors) stimulated smooth muscle as well as other cells. Furthermore, there is now sufficient information from classical pharmacological and biochemical assays as well as molecular investigations to divide both categories into receptor sub-classes, namely, BLT1 and BLT2 as well as CysLT1 and CysLT2 (Table 1).KeywordsAirway Smooth Muscle CellVascular Smooth Muscle Cell ProliferationHuman Airway Smooth MuscleHuman Airway Smooth Muscle CellCysLT ReceptorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.