Meiosis: A Prostaglandin Response That Is Not Inhibited by Aspirin

Abstract

Antidromic stimulation of the sensory nerve to the rabbit eye produces pupillary meiosis, supposedly by release of prostaglandins into the aqueous humour. The analogy between this phenomenon and neurogenic inflammation is drawn. It is shown that aspirin and indomethacin, known blockers of prostaglandin synthesis and release, fail to block the meiosis thus produced.

Anti-inflammatory drugs, prostaglandins and leucocyte migration

“…Thus it has been found that the anti-inflammatory activity of the drug was only partially abolished in rats maintained on a diet deficient in essential fatty acids [30]. It and aspirin also fail to block papillary meoisis in the rabbit eye, this being an inflammatory response supposedly produced by the release of prostaglandins into the aqueous humour [31 ]. If aspirin-like drugs affect such an important aspect of inflammation as leucocyte migration into inflammatory exudates and there is no causal connection between such migration and prostaglandin content then the simple correlation of anti-prostaglandin synthetase activity and anti-inflammatory activity in this group of drugs cannot be justified.…”