[Prostaglandins: synthetic and pharmacological studies and development].

The therapeutic use of prostaglandins (PGs) which contain various biological activities and are unstable was successfully achieved. PGs were produced in a large scale according to the Corey method and could be stabilized by the formation of a clathrate compound with cyclodextrin, which enabled the production of marketable form of highly pure PGs. Diligence in the development of native PGs and their structural analogs for human therapy resulted in the following six drugs now being on the market in Japan: PGF2 alpha as the first drug of PGs in the world which induces labor; PGE2 as an orally active labor inducing drug; PGE1 for the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases; gemeprost for therapeutic abortion in the middle-term; ornoprostil, as an oral anti-ulcer agent; limaprost for the treatment of peripheral vascular diseases as an oral agent.