Concordance between lipopolysaccharide and platelet activating factor - mediated events have suggested that the latter likely mediates all effects induced by the former. In this issue of Temperature, Steiner and Romanovsky challenge this notion, showing that while platelet activating factor is a potent pyrogenic mediator, the thermoregulatory responses to lipopolysaccharide are instead induced ...

The growth and survival of the preimplantation mammalian embryo may be regulated by several autocrine trophic factors that have redundant or overlapping actions. One of the earliest trophic factors to be produced is embryo-derived platelet-activating factor (1-O-alky-2-acetyl-sn-glyceryl-3-phosphocholine). The addition of platelet-activating factor to embryo culture media exerted a trophic effe...

1. The role of platelet-activating factor in the attenuated hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction associated with lung injury was evaluated using specific platelet-activating factor antagonists and an isolated perfused lung preparation. 2. Intratracheal bleomycin was administered to rats to produce acute lung injury. Animals received intratracheal saline (control), intratracheal bleomycin or the p...