Review on prostaglandin and oxytocin activity in preterm labor.

The principal difference between term and preterm labor is how they are activated. It has been proposed that term labor results from physiological activation of the common terminal pathway, whereas preterm labor is a pathological condition caused by multiple etiologies that activate one or more of the components of this pathway. Increased uterine contractility at preterm labor results from activation and stimulation of the myometrium. Myometrium is stimulated by increased concentrations ofprostaglandins and oxytocin. Increased production of stimulatory prostaglandins by intrauterine tissues is generally considered a central component of the cascade of events leading to preterm parturition. Prostaglandins act to mediate cervical ripening and to stimulate uterine contractions and indirectly to increase fundally dominant myometrial contractility by up regulation of gap junctions, oxytocin and arginine vasopressin receptors and synchronizations of contractions. The authors tried to explain the role and influence of oxytocin in human parturition, as well as the novel therapy in inhibiting the contractions in preterm labor. The selective oxytocin inhibitor was tested in vitro on human myometrium and decidua by the author of this article among the first in the world.