Discovery of two forms of cyclooxygenase

• 1989 ... IL-1 induces COX activity in fibroblasts 1

• 1990 … the inducible COX activity is inhibited by steroids 2 steroids had no effect on basal cyclooxygenase activity

• 1991 … the inducible cycloxygenase is cloned 3

  • 60% identical to COX-1
  • certain important amino acid differences
  • cytokine induced and regulated by glucocorticoids

1 : Raz et al, PNAS, 1989, 86, 1657-16612 : Fu et al, J Biol Chem, 1990, 265. 16737-403 : Xie et al, 1991, PNAS, 88, 2692-6

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