9,10-Epoxy-12-octadecenoic acid (EOA), a metabolite of linoleic acid, causes cardiac arrest in dogs. Other metabolites of linoleic acid also have toxic effects. This study investigates the mechanism of action of four of these compounds on cardiac Na ϩ current (I Na ). The whole-cell patch-clamp technique was used to investigate the effects of EOA, 9,10-dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic acid (DHOA), and their corresponding methyl esters (9,10-epoxy-12-octadecenoic methyl ester, EOM; and 9,10-dihydroxy-12-octadecenoic methyl ester, DHOM) on I Na in isolated adult rat ventricular myocytes. Extracellular application of each compound elicited a concentration-dependent inhibition of I Na . The dose-response curve yielded 50% inhibition concentrations of 301 Ϯ 117 M for DHOA, 41 Ϯ 6 M for DHOM, 34 Ϯ 5 M for EOA, and 160 Ϯ 41 M for EOM. Although there was no effect on activation, 50 M DHOM, EOA, and EOM significantly hyperpolarized the steady-state inactivation curve by approximately Ϫ6 mV. Furthermore, EOM significantly increased the slope of the steady-state inactivation curve. These compounds also seemed to stabilize the inactivated state because the time for recovery from inactivation was significantly slowed from a control value of 12.9 Ϯ 0.5 ms to 30.5 Ϯ 3.3, 31.4 Ϯ 1.4, and 20.5 Ϯ 1.0 ms by 50 M DHOM, EOA, and EOM, respectively. These compounds have multiple actions on Na ϩ channels and that despite their structural similarities their actions differ from each other. The steady-state block of I Na suggests that either the pore is being blocked or the channels are prevented from gating to the open state. In addition, these compounds stabilize the inactivated state and promote increased population of a slower inactivated state.The role of fatty acids in signaling processes is becoming increasingly important. Various fatty acids have been shown to alter several ion currents, including Na ϩ (Xiao et al., 1995;Kang and Leaf, 1996), Ca 2ϩ (Huang et al., 1992;Hashimoto et al., 1999) Bogdanov et al., 1998;Crumb et al., 1999), and Cl Ϫ (Ordway et al., 1991). Arachidonic acid (C20:4) has been widely studied for the actions of the parent compound as well as the extensive metabolic pathways, including the prostaglandins and leukotrienes. Although less widely studied, linoleic acid (C18:2) is a major component of cell membrane phospholipids and is subject to some of the same metabolic pathways. A linoleic acid metabolite (LAM) of interest is 9,10-epoxy-12-octadecenoic acid (EOA), also known as leukotoxin. EOA is formed by lipid autoxidation in the lungs (Sevanian et al., 1979) and by spontaneous reaction of oxygen radicals with linoleic acid in neutrophil membranes (Hayakawa et al., 1996) (Fig. 1). Although undetectable in normal patients (Hayakawa et al., 1990), EOA has been associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome in burn patients where it can reach plasma concentrations up to 300 M (mean peak plasma concentration of 99 Ϯ 25 M) (Kosaka et al., 1994). EOA has also been shown to cause cardiac arrest in dogs (Fukush...