interleukin-8 and gemeprost

Induction of labour is a common obstetric instrument to employ when the potential risk to continue a pregnancy is higher than to terminate it. The methods of induction can be pharmacological or mechanical; the choice of the method mainly depends by the cervical ripening, as it is significantly able to influence, according to the type of induction, its final issue. The mechanical methods are: stripping and sweeping of the membranes, hand dilatation of cervix, intrauterine pressure catheters, Laminaria Japonicum, transcervical Foley catheter and amniotomy. To pharmacological methods include some agents such as the prostaglandins (PG), the most common approach to induce a labour, and used above all by vaginal way in patients with unripe cervix. They simulate the natural PG effects at the beginning of delivery and show a great efficiency. There are a lot of PG on the market, but except some of them, as Dinoprostone for PGE2 and Misoprostol for PGE1, no one of them shows the same safety in management of labour. Oxytocin, another inductive method, administered by diluted intravenous infusion, is utilized alone or mainly with other methods when the labour is started or with rupture of the membranes, because it begins or maintains the myometrial contraction.

Topics: Abortifacient Agents, Nonsteroidal; Abortifacient Agents, Steroidal; Adrenal Cortex Hormones; Alprostadil; Catheterization; Dinoprostone; Estrogens; Female; Humans; Interleukin-8; Labor, Induced; Mifepristone; Oxytocin; Pregnancy; Prostaglandins; Relaxin

Our purpose was (1) to determine whether the human cervix is capable of producing interleukin-8 in vitro and to examine the possibility of stimulating an increase in any such output and (2) to examine the concomitant production of prostaglandins.. Cervical tissue was obtained from 48 women, 29 pregnant women undergoing surgical termination of pregnancy (20 of whom were treated with the prostaglandin analog Cervagem), 14 nonpregnant, premenopausal women, and three postmenopausal women. Explants were cultured and the medium was assayed for interleukin-8 and prostaglandin E2. Analysis of variance and Newman-Keuls statistical tests were used.. Significant quantities of interleukin-8 were produced by the tissue, and the data indicate that cervical explants from pregnant and nonpregnant women behave in a similar way when challenged by phorbol myristate acetate but that the postmenopausal cervix loses its capacity for interleukin-8 production.. Human cervix is capable of producing large amounts of interleukin-8 in vitro, and it may be influenced by the steroid hormones. Thus interleukin-8 could be an excellent candidate for a prime role in neutrophil-mediated cervical ripening.

Topics: Abortifacient Agents, Nonsteroidal; Alprostadil; Analysis of Variance; Cervix Uteri; Culture Techniques; Dimethylformamide; Dinoprostone; Ethers, Cyclic; Female; Humans; Interleukin-8; Lipopolysaccharides; Menopause; Okadaic Acid; Phosphoprotein Phosphatases; Pregnancy; Progesterone; Radioimmunoassay; Tetradecanoylphorbol Acetate; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha