The prostaglandin transporter is widely expressed in ocular tissues

Prostaglandins (PGs) play important physiological and therapeutic roles in the eye. Our laboratory recently identified a novel PG transporter in the rat that are call ''PGT'' (Science 268:866, 1995). We have also recently cloned the human PGT cDNA (J Clin Invest 98:1142, 1996). To determine whether PGT might play a role in human ocular tissues, ae performed Northern blot analysis of RNA obtained from human ocular tissues and from the nonpigmented ciliary epithelium cell Line ''ODM-2'' PGT transcripts were clearly evident in all ocular tissues. Given that the functional profile of PGT expressed In vitro strongly suggests a role in PG uptake and degradation, the present results suggest that PGT may function in various regions of the human eye for purposes of terminating the signal(s) produced by locally-synthesized PGs.