In molecular biology, prostanoids are active lipid mediators that regulate inflammatory response.
[2][3] The first discovery was seen through semen by a Swedish Physiologist Ulf von Euler, who assumed they originated from the prostate.
After intensive study throughout the 1960-1970s Sune K. Bergström and Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson and British biochemist Sir John Robert Vane were able to understand the function and chemical formation of Prostanoids: receiving a Nobel Prize for their analysis of prostanoids.
Cyclooxygenase (COX) catalyzes the conversion of the free essential fatty acids to prostanoids by a two-step process.
In the first step, two molecules of O2 are added as two peroxide linkages and a 5-member carbon ring is forged near the middle of the fatty acid chain.