The 1982 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded to two Swedish biochemists, Bengt Ingemar Samuelsson (1934) and Sune K. Bergstrom (1916), and an English scientist, John Robert Vane (1927), for the isolation, identification, and analysis of numerous prostaglandins, biochemical compounds that influence blood pressure, body temperature, allergic reactions, and other physiologic phenomena in mammals. Samuelsson's work with prostaglandins and arachidonic acid led to the discovery of endoperoxides, thromboxanes, and leukotrienes.
