Prostaglandin (PG) E2 (greater than or equal to 1.6 nM) and PGD2 (greater than or equal to 16 nM) inhibited polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) degranulation responses to leukotriene (LT) B4 and platelet-activating factor (PAF) whereas PGF2 alpha was bioinactive. [3H]PGE2 and [3H]PGD2 bound to PMN and isolated, plasmalemma-enriched PMN membranes. Binding was time-dependent, specific, saturable, and reversible. Competitive studies indicated that the two PGs bound to distinctly different sites. PMN had high (Kd = 1 nM; Rt = 150/cell) and low (Kd = 100 nM; Rt = 5800/cell) affinity PGE2 binding sites. Only a single type of PGD2 binding site (Kd = 13 nM; Rt = 5100/cell) was detected. We conclude that PGE2 and PGD2 bind to their respective, plasmalemmal receptors to attenuate PMN function. The PGs may act as endogenous stop signals to limit the action of concurrently formed excitatory signals, eg., LTB4 and PAF.