Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETE) are major arachidonic acid metabolites of a number of cells found in blood and blood vessels. These products have been implicated in physiologic responses as diverse as platelet aggregation, cell migration, and cell proliferation. Using a sensitive and specific assay, GC/selected ion monitoring after high-performance liquid chromatography separation, we have measured the levels of three HETE isomers of biologic significance 12-HETE, 15-HETE, and 5-HETE in plasma, serum and stimulated serum (formed in the presence of arachidonic acid and calcium ionophore), obtained from normal adults and cord blood from normal neonates. Whereas there were no significant differences between the two groups for 5- or 15-HETE in any of the samples, stimulated serum from adults produced 12 times as much 12-HETE when compared to cord blood. When platelets were isolated from adult and cord blood, 12-HETE production by neonatal platelets, stimulated with 10 microM arachidonic acid, was less than one-fourth that of adults. Although no role for 12-HETE in normal platelet responses has yet been established, it has been reported that those individuals with myeloproliferative syndromes who demonstrate a concomitant decrease in platelet 12-HETE synthetic ability have an increased bleeding tendency. It needs to be further evaluated if this already depressed level of 12-lipoxygenase in neonatal platelets may contribute to pathologic bleeding in those infants subjected to additional stress (such as prematurity or birth asphyxia).