- Title
- Maintenance of Pregnancy and Parturition
- Creator
- Phung, Jason; Paul, Jonathan; Smith, Roger
- Relation
- Maternal-Fetal and Neonatal Endocrinology p. 169-187
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814823-5.00013-1
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- The establishment and maintenance of pregnancy rely on a number of hormones, including progesterone and human chorionic gonadotrophin. Throughout gestation, pregnancy is under a progesterone block, which maintains uterine quiescence to permit fetal growth and maturation. As a woman approaches term, there is a functional progesterone withdrawal and functional estrogen activation that upregulate contraction-associated proteins. These hormonal changes appear to coincide with inflammatory changes that further encourage the transformation of the uterus from a resting to a contractile phenotype. During parturition, the release of oxytocin and prostaglandins enhances contractions, and increasing gap junctions allows the synchronization of myocyte activity and rhythmic contractions of the whole uterus. A number of factors can initiate preterm labor, including infection, sterile inflammation, and blood and cellular senescence.
- Subject
- cervix; contractions; estrogen; inflammation; labor; parturition
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1439213
- Identifier
- uon:40856
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780128148235
- Language
- eng
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