The metabolism of arachidonic acid through the lipoxygenase pathway was studied in suspensions of fresh human bone marrow cells from eight patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) and 10 normal controls. After the cells were incubated with the calcium ionophore A23187 and arachidonic acid, a technique including reverse- and straight-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to isolate and detect different lipoxygenase-mediated compounds. The detected compounds included leukotriene B4 (LTB4), with its two major nonenzymatic isomers 6-trans-LTB4 and 12-epi-6-trans-LTB4 5S,12S-DHETE, and the monohydroxy eicosatetraenoic acids 5-HETE, 12-HETE, and 15-HETE. The pattern of lipoxygenase-mediated products from the bone marrows was similar to that previously described from human peripheral blood. Of eight bone marrow samples from CML patients, five expressed values above 600 ng LTB4/10(8) nucleated cells, as compared to only one out of 10 controls. In contrast, the CML patients produced significantly lower amounts of both the double-dioxygenation product 5S,12S-DHETE (56.8 +/- 16.0 ng [mean +/- SE] versus 146.1 +/- 31.3 ng; p less than 0.05) and the monohydroxy acid 12-HETE (965 +/- 351 ng versus 4390 +/- 1801 ng; p less than 0.05), indicating a 12-lipoxygenase deficiency. The present results show that leukotrienes are formed by human bone marrow cells and further suggest the existence of altered lipoxygenase activity in CML.