Abstract
Much of our understanding and knowledge of human parturition has been blurred by conjecture and extrapolation. The limited available data on human parturition reflect the inability to directly experiment with pregnant human subjects. In spite of this obvious impediment and the scarcity of longitudinal data on fundamental physiological changes in human pregnancy, recent reports have generated a better understanding of the synchronous activities leading to labor. The purpose of this review was to organize, in an evidence-based format, the current understanding of maternal physiologic phenomena leading from uterine quiescence to uterine labor activity. Recent discoveries have prompted a revision of pre-existing classical theories on the initiation of parturition, such as the progesterone block theory or the prostaglandins stimulation of the uterotonic action of oxytocin. The presence in the circulation of extrahypothalamic corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) produced by the placenta and myometrium is an inciting unique feature of primate pregnancy and a promising field for research. The concept of anatomical regionalization in labor promotion, including the cervical physiological inflammatory reaction, is also discussed in the review, especially in support of the strong link between inflammatory activation and onset of preterm labor. Understanding the intimate chain of events leading to parturition is critical, and elucidating the interplay of signals and processes that initiate normal labor may help us to understand the abnormal variant, spontaneous preterm labor, and devise efficacious interventions against it.
Keywords: initiation of labor, human labor, Parturition
Current Medicinal Chemistry
Title: Potential Biochemical Events Associated with Initiation of Labor
Volume: 15 Issue: 6
Author(s): S. M. Ramin and A. C. Vidaeff
Affiliation:
Keywords: initiation of labor, human labor, Parturition
Abstract: Much of our understanding and knowledge of human parturition has been blurred by conjecture and extrapolation. The limited available data on human parturition reflect the inability to directly experiment with pregnant human subjects. In spite of this obvious impediment and the scarcity of longitudinal data on fundamental physiological changes in human pregnancy, recent reports have generated a better understanding of the synchronous activities leading to labor. The purpose of this review was to organize, in an evidence-based format, the current understanding of maternal physiologic phenomena leading from uterine quiescence to uterine labor activity. Recent discoveries have prompted a revision of pre-existing classical theories on the initiation of parturition, such as the progesterone block theory or the prostaglandins stimulation of the uterotonic action of oxytocin. The presence in the circulation of extrahypothalamic corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) produced by the placenta and myometrium is an inciting unique feature of primate pregnancy and a promising field for research. The concept of anatomical regionalization in labor promotion, including the cervical physiological inflammatory reaction, is also discussed in the review, especially in support of the strong link between inflammatory activation and onset of preterm labor. Understanding the intimate chain of events leading to parturition is critical, and elucidating the interplay of signals and processes that initiate normal labor may help us to understand the abnormal variant, spontaneous preterm labor, and devise efficacious interventions against it.
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Cite this article as:
Ramin M. S. and Vidaeff C. A., Potential Biochemical Events Associated with Initiation of Labor, Current Medicinal Chemistry 2008; 15 (6) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/092986708783769786
DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/092986708783769786 |
Print ISSN 0929-8673 |
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher |
Online ISSN 1875-533X |
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