Incubations of [1-'4C]arachidonic acid with unstimulated human polymorphonuclear leukocytes resulted in the formation of four new metabolites in a previously described reverse-phase HPLC system. Three of these metabolites were largely suppressed in a CO/02 (80/20, by vol.) atmosphere indicating a cytochrome-P450-dependent monooxygenase reaction. In agreement with this assumption is their NADPH/02-dependent formation in the microsomal fraction. One metabolite was identified by gas chiomatography/mass spectrometry analysis as o-hydroxy-arachidonic acid and the two others were secondary products identified as w-carboxy-arachidonic acid and 5,2O-dihydroxy-E,Z,Z,Z-6,8,11 ,14-eicosatetraenoic acid. Since the affinity for arachidonate of the w-monooxygenase was quite low and the presence of LTB4 suppressed the w-hydroxylation of arachidonate, we conclude that the known LTB4 w-monooxygenase is responsible for the formation of w-hydroxy-arachidonate. It is unlikely, however, that significant concentrations of these metabolites are formed by activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes in vivo. The fourth metabolite remains tightly associated with the leukocytes but has not been further characterized.The release of arachidonic acid from phospholipids catalyzed by the action of phospholipase A2 is a frequent event subsequent to increases in intracellular cytosolic calcium levels. Depending on the various cell types in which this is observed, the further metabolism of arachidonic acid leads to highly active autacoids derived from either the cyclooxygenase or lipoxygenase pathways. In human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN), two lipoxygenases are present and convert arachidonate to 15-hydroperoxyeicosatetraenoic acid (1 5-HPETE) or 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (1 5-HETE) and to a major part to leukotriene B4 (LTB4), a highly chemotactic agent, which is formed from the primary 5-lipoxygenase product 5-HPETE via LTA4 [l]. The activity of 5-lipoxygenase was reported to depend strongly on elevated Ca2+ levels [2,3], but we recently showed that glutathione depletion also has an activating effect, probably by increasing organic peroxide concentrations [4]. Without Ca2+ or peroxides, the addition of arachidonic acid to PMN results in only minor amounts of 5-lipoxygenase-derived metabolites as detected in HPLC chromatograms by monitoring their triene absorption at 280 nm and diene absorption at 237 nm, respectively.In the course of these experiments, we also employed [l-14C]arachidonate and monitored the metabolites by means of a radioactivity detector. The corresponding chromatograms showed four additional metabolites. They all escaped ultraviolet detection because of a lack of an absorbance at the respective wavelength. Since this was an indication against lipoxygenase metabolites, we investigated other routes of Correspondence to V. Ullrich,