Journal
BIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION
Volume 72, Issue 3, Pages 720-726Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1095/biolreprod.104.033647
Keywords
apoptosis; parturition; placenta
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Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [HD39159, HD48467] Funding Source: Medline
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The etiology of fetal membrane (FM) rupture is unknown. A hypothesis that the FM weakens by a process of collagen remodeling and apoptosis to facilitate rupture has been proposed. Human FMs reportedly exhibit a zone of altered histology, postulated to be the FM rupture site, but concomitant FM weakness has not been demonstrated. We hypothesized that a discrete zone of FM with marked weakness, histological change, and evidence of remodeling and apoptosis, develops in late gestation in the FM overlying the cervix. FM tissue from women undergoing prelabor cesarean delivery were perioperatively marked to identify the FM overlying the cervix, cut with a procedure that facilitates remapping the rupture strength of FM pieces to their former location and orientation on a three-dimensional model, and tested for strength. A 10-cm FM zone centered at the cervical mark was compared with the remaining FM. Mean rupture strength within the cervical zone was 55% of the remaining FM. The cervical zone also exhibited increased MMP-9 protein, decreased tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-3 (TIMP-3) protein, and increased PARP cleavage coincident with the previously reported zone of altered histology. A discrete zone of weakness is present in term prelabor FMs overlying the cervix and has biochemical characteristics consistent with tissue remodeling and apoptosis.
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