Breaking the COX code Using the team approach Editor’s Note:
This story, first published in 2004, has been updated.
Prostaglandins, which were first isolated from the prostate
gland in 1936, are very rapidly metabolized, or broken down,
making measurement in the blood difficult. Researchers at
Vanderbilt led by John Oates, M.D., developed methods for
measuring levels of prostaglandin metabolites (breakdown
products) in the urine using mass spectrometry. Using this
technique, the research team—which by the late 1970s included L.
Jackson Roberts, M.D.—identified prostaglandin D2 as a product
of the human mast cell and demonstrated its release during
allergic asthma. With colleagues including Garret A. FitzGerald,
M.D., now chair of Pharmacology at the University of
Pennsylvania, Oates and Roberts showed that low doses of aspirin
blocked the production of thromboxane, a prostaglandin made by
platelets that causes blood clotting and constriction of blood
vessels. Their findings supported the use of low dose aspir