A Presumptive Role for Leukotrienes in Obstructive Airways Diseases

¹ From the Departments of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and of Rheumatology and Immunology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston

The likelihood that the leukotriene products derived from the 5-lipoxygenase pathway mediate aspects of obstructive airways diseases is strongly suggested by their documented capacities to effect airway spasmogenicity, airway hyperreactivity, tissue edema formation, mucus secretion, and tissue infiltration by leukocytes. That the various leukotriene components of SRS-A have unique receptors on responding tissues and are recoverable from airway surfaces in several inflammatory lung diseases and that several resident and infiltrating cell types have significant potential for leukotriene biosynthesis lend further support to their postulated pathobiologic roles. To fulfill Koch's postulates for proof of leukotrienes' etiologic role, it remains to be shown that inhibition of their biosynthesis or specific antagonism at their end-organ receptors can greatly ameliorate these disease states.