Prostaglandins are lipid compounds produced in the body that have hormone-like functions. They are derived from arachidonic acid and have diverse roles such as regulating blood pressure, smooth muscle contraction, and inflammatory responses. Prostaglandins are involved in important biological processes like reproduction and digestion. While prostaglandins are necessary for healing, an excess can cause pain and inflammation. Medications like NSAIDs work by blocking prostaglandin production to reduce inflammation.

1. Prostaglandin
~Structure, Biosynthesis & biological action and role in
Pathology.
~V.Prathiksha_22PFN33

2. What is Prostaglandin:
• Prostaglandins are a group of lipids with hormone-like actions that your body makes primarily
at sites of tissue damage or infection.
• There are several different types of prostaglandins, and they play several essential roles in
regulating bodily processes, including: Blood clot formation at the site of an injury
• Different prostaglandins control blood pressure, contraction of smooth muscles, and other
processes within tissues where they are made. Certain prostaglandins are being studied as
cancer biomarkers.
• Examples of prostaglandin F 2α analogues: Xalatan (latanoprost) Zioptan (tafluprost) Travatan Z
(travoprost)
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3. History of Prostaglandin:
Prostaglandin, any of a group of physiologically active substances having diverse
hormonelike effects in animals.
Prostaglandins were discovered in human semen in 1935 by the Swedish physiologist Ulf
von Euler, who named them, thinking that they were secreted by the prostate gland.
The understanding of prostaglandins grew in the 1960s and ’70s with the pioneering
research of Swedish biochemists Sune K. Bergström and Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson
and British biochemist Sir John Robert Vane. The threesome shared the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for their isolation, identification, and analysis of numerous
prostaglandins.
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4. Are Prostaglandin are hormones?
Prostaglandins are lipids with hormone-like properties. Lipids are a class of organic
compounds that are fatty acids or their derivatives. Your body produces prostaglandins
from a fatty acid called arachidonic acid.
Prostaglandins are hormone-like because they coordinate different functions in your
body and tell your body what to do and when to do it.
Prostaglandins are different from hormones because your endocrine system glands
don’t release them into your bloodstream like they do hormones. Instead, your tissues
make prostaglandins at the site of the action, damage or infection.
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5. Functions of Prostaglandin:
There are several different types of prostaglandins and prostaglandin receptors that affect almost every
part of your body. The effect of prostaglandins depends on multiple factors, including:
# The organ or tissue involved.
# The receptor to which they attach.
# The bodily function or physiological situation.
Major Functions:
•Activate or inhibit (prevent) platelet buildup for blood clot formation.
• Cause vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) or vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels).
Cause bronchoconstriction (the narrowing of air passageways) or bronchodilation (widening of air
passageways).
•Cause fever. •Influence pain perception.
•Induce labor through uterine contractions. Cause your uterus to contract during menstruation to shed
the uterine lining.
•Decrease pressure within your eye.
•Inhibit acid secretion in your stomach.
• Contract or relax smooth muscle in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
•Regulate several hormones.
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6. Structure of Prostaglandin: Biosynthesis
The prostaglandins are made up of unsaturated fatty acids that contain a cyclopentane
(5-carbon) ring and are derived from the 20-carbon, straight-chain, polyunsaturated
fatty acid precursor arachidonic acid.
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7. •
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Biosynthesis:

8. • One enzyme, lipoxygenase, catalyzes the conversion of arachidonic acid to one of
several possible leukotrienes, which are important mediators of the inflammatory
process.
• Another enzyme, cyclooxygenase(COX) which is required for the formation of
prostaglandins and is blocked by painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen. It
catalyzes the conversion of arachidonic acid to one of several possible
endoperoxides.
• The endoperoxides undergo further modifications to form prostaglandins,
prostacyclin, and thromboxanes.
• The thromboxanes and prostacyclin have important functions in the process of
blood coagulation.
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10. Biological Action:
Prostaglandins are unique compounds because they have hormone-like effects. That is,
they influence reactions in the body when they’re present in certain tissues.
Unlike hormones, they aren’t released from a specific gland. Instead, the body has a
number of tissues that can make prostaglandins.
Another interesting aspect of prostaglandins is that different ones have different effects.
Many times, these effects are exact opposite.,
Examples include:
# constriction or dilation of blood vessels
# forming platelets into a cluster or breaking them up
# opening or closing up airways
# contracting or relaxing smooth muscle in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract
# causing uterine contractions in pregnancy and when not pregnant
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11. Period:
Prostaglandins have a role in the natural physiology of your body in addition to their role
in defense and repair. For example, prostaglandins are responsible for uterine
contractions during menstruation. These contractions help release the uterine lining
(endometrium) from your uterus, thus producing a period.
Prostaglandin receptors are present in the uterus whether you’re pregnant or not n may
be responsible for uterine cramping that can cause painful periods.
Taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, blocks
prostaglandins and may help reduce menstrual pain.
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13. Pregnancy:
In late pregnancy, a woman starts to have a larger number of certain types of
prostaglandins in her uterine tissue. These include PGE2 and PGE2a, responsible for
creating uterine contractions.
Contractions are part of what can help move a baby down the birth canal in preparation
for labor. Doctors may also prescribe prostaglandin medications that attach to
prostaglandin receptors in the uterus to induce labor.
Abortion:
Prostaglandin medications to stimulate uterine contractions. This effect can cause
abortion, or the termination of a pregnancy. Doctors may prescribe the medication
misoprostol for a first trimester abortion, sometimes in combination with other
medications.
Doctors also may prescribe misoprostol in the event of a miscarriage. The medication can
help the uterus release the products of conception. This can reduce complications after
miscarriage and promote the chance to conceive again.
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15. Vasodilation and blood clotting:
• Most prostaglandins act locally; for instance, they are powerful locally acting vasodilators. Vasodilation
occurs when the muscles in the walls of blood vessels relax so that the vessels dilate. This creates less
resistance to blood flow and allows blood flow to increase and blood pressure to decrease.
An important example of the vasodilatory action of prostaglandins is found in the kidneys, in which
widespread vasodilation leads to an increase in the flow of blood to the kidneys and an increase in the
excretion of sodium in the urine. Thromboxanes, on the other hand, are powerful vasoconstrictors that
cause a decrease in blood flow and an increase in blood pressure.
• Thromboxanes and prostacyclins play an important role in the formation of blood clots. The process of
clot formation begins with an aggregation of blood platelets. This process is strongly stimulated by
thromboxanes and inhibited by prostacyclin.
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Inflammation:
Prostaglandins play a pivotal role in inflammation, a process characterized by redness
(rubor), heat (calor), pain (dolor), and swelling (tumor). The changes associated with
inflammation are due to dilation of local blood vessels that permits increased blood flow
to the affected area.
The blood vessels also become more permeable, leading to the escape of white blood
cells (leukocytes) from the blood into the inflamed tissues. Thus, drugs such as aspirin or
ibuprofen that inhibit prostaglandin synthesis are effective in suppressing inflammation
in patients with inflammatory but noninfectious diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
The prostaglandin type PGE2 as causing redness, swelling, and pain. It also have a variety
of inflammatory effects, including causing vasodilation, promoting fevers, and recruiting
cells involved in allergic reactions.

17. General healing:
Prostaglandins can have healing effects, especially in the stomach. They decrease
stomach acid production while also stimulating the release of protective mucus in the GI
tract.
In addition, prostaglandins also influence blood clotting to prevent bleeding. They also help
dissolve clots when a person is healing.
Eye pressure:
Prostaglandins can play a role in decreasing intraocular pressure. For this reason, doctors
may prescribe eye drops that help reduce eye pressure. This effect can help treat
conditions like glaucoma.
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18. Smooth muscle contraction:
• Although prostaglandins were first detected in semen, no clear role in reproduction has been
established for them in males,but they play an important role in ovulation, and they stimulate uterine
muscle contraction—a discovery that led to the successful treatment of menstrual cramps
(dysmenorrhea) with inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis, such as ibuprofen. Prostaglandins also play a
role in inducing labour in pregnant women at term, and they are given to induce therapeutic abortions.
• The function of the digestive tract is also affected by prostaglandins, with prostaglandins either
stimulating or inhibiting contraction of the smooth muscles of the intestinal walls.
In addition, prostaglandins inhibit the secretion of gastric acid, and therefore it is not surprising that drugs
such as aspirin that inhibit prostaglandin synthesis may lead to peptic ulcers. Prostaglandin action on the
digestive tract may also cause severe watery diarrhea and may mediate the effects of vasoactive
intestinal polypeptide in Verner-Morrison syndrome, as well as the effects of cholera toxin.
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19. Role in Pathology:
Several different kinds of synthetic prostaglandins as medication for a variety of conditions and
situations, including:
#Travoprost can treat glaucoma and elevated eye pressure (ocular hypertension).
#Dinoprostone can help dilate the cervix in pregnant people who are at or near term. This will help
induce labor.
#Alprostadil belongs to a group of medicines called vasodilators. These drugs increase blood flow by
expanding blood vessels. They can help treat conditions such as cyanotic heart disease in infants and
erectile dysfunction (ED).
#In some cases, healthcare providers use misoprostol rectally to treat postpartum hemorrhage.
#Iloprost can treat pulmonary hypertension and limited scleroderma (CREST syndrome).
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20. Since excess prostaglandins can cause unnecessary pain and inflammation, healthcare
providers also use medications to block (inhibit) the effects of prostaglandins.
The most commonly used and well-known medications that block prostaglandins are
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), also known as pain relievers. NSAIDs
include aspirin compounds, ibuprofen and naproxen sodium.
Excess prostaglandins:
Sometimes, your body produces too many prostaglandins, which leads to unwanted and
unhelpful inflammation in your body. Excessive levels of prostaglandins can cause or
contribute to a variety of health conditions, including:
•Chronic pain.
•Increased pain sensitivity.
•Painful menstruation or menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea).
•Heavy menstrual bleeding.
•Certain types of cancer.
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21. Lack of prostaglandins:
Sometimes, your body doesn’t create enough prostaglandins to heal an injury or start labor if you’re at term with
a pregnancy. While these situations aren’t connected to any kind of chronic health condition, artificial (synthetic)
prostaglandins can help. Healthcare providers use synthetic prostaglandins to treat stomach ulcers and glaucoma.
They can also use synthetic prostaglandins to kick-start labor.
Painful periods (dysmenorrhea), is one of the most common prostaglandin-related conditions that may cause
you to see your provider. Talk to your doctor if you have painful periods that don’t get better when you take
NSAIDs (pain relievers). Sometimes, painful periods are due to an underlying medical condition, such as
endometriosis or uterine fibroids.
Prostaglandins are natural and powerful substances that affect several aspects of your body. While
prostaglandins are necessary for bodily processes such as healing, having excess prostaglandins can cause
chronic pain and inflammation and lower your quality of life. If you’re experiencing ongoing pain or inflammation,
talk to your healthcare provider. They can help determine the cause of your symptoms and suggest a treatment
plan.
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22. Thank you!