Suppression of IL-4 Production in Murine Lymphocytes by Orally Effective Prostaglandin E(1) Analogs.

Prostaglandins (PGs) regulate a wide variety of immunologic processes. We studied the activity of PGE(1), and two orally effective PGE(1) methyl ester analogs, misoprostol (MP) and enisoprost (EP), as inhibitors of interleukin-4 (IL-4) production in stimulated murine splenic T cells in vitro. Effective suppresion of IL-4 production was seen with all three agents with KI(50)s of 65 nM for MP and 20 nM for EP.