Recent analysis of mice deficient in both oxytocin (OT) and cyclooxygenase-1 has shown that OT exerts significant effects on both the ovarian corpus luteum and the uterine myometrium during pregnancy. To better define the roles of OT during pregnancy, we evaluated OT action and OT receptor regulation in wild-type and OT-deficient knockout (KO) mice. Continuous infusion of OT revealed that OT ca...

BACKGROUND The pathogenesis of uterine leiomyomas, the most common benign tumor in women, remains unclear. Since acquired factors such as obesity, hypertension and early menarche place women at greater risk for uterine leiomyomas, uterine leiomyomas may be associated with epigenetic abnormalities that are caused by unfavorable environmental exposures. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Profiles of genome-wid...

Quantitative collagen determinations demonstrate an increase of approximately 800 per cent in the collagen content of the human uterus at term as compared with the non-pregnant state. Following parturition, there is a rapid resorption of collagen. The amount of collagen which disappears from the post partum uterus is approximately 53 gm. By the 8th day post partum, the human uterus has lost app...

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibits contractions of the myometrium. Isometric force measurements on myometrial strips were carried out to monitor the inhibitory capacity of CGRP in the myometrium during the estrous cycle and in response to estrogen and progesterone in ovariectomized mice. CGRP inhibition of KCl-induced contractions was lowest at estrus and significantly increased du...

Uterine leiomyomata, or fibroids, are benign tumors of the uterine myometrium that significantly affect up to 30% of reproductive-age women. Despite being the primary cause of hysterectomy in the United States, accounting for up to 200,000 procedures annually, the etiology of leiomyoma remains largely unknown. As a basis for understanding leiomyoma pathogenesis and identifying targets for pharm...

Given the emerging roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) as key regulator of mRNA stability we assessed their expression profile in paired myometrium and leiomyoma, their isolated smooth muscle cells (MSMC and LSMC), a spontaneously transformed leiomyoma smooth muscle cells (T-LSMC) and SK-LMS-1, a leiomyosarcoma cell line using microarray and real time PCR. Based on global normalization of expression va...

Objective To compare the expression of G-protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) in the junctional zone and outer myometrium of the proliferative and secretory phases of women with and without adenomyosis. Methods A total of 76 women were included in this study, 42 with adenomyosis (proliferative phase, n = 23; secretory phases, n = 19) and 34 controls (proliferative phase, n = 16; secretory...

Numerous female reproductive abnormalities are consequences of disorders in uterus smooth muscle (myometrium) contractile function. In this work, we described activators of ATPase, which could be used for development of effective treatments for correcting this dysfunction. Myosin ATPase localized in the catalytic domain of myosin subfragment-1 transforms a chemical energy deposited in macroergi...

Uterine leiomyomas (ULs) are the most common gynecological benign tumors originating from the myometrium. Prevalent mutations in the mediator complex subunit 12 (MED12) gene have been identified in ULs, and functional evidence has revealed that these mutations may promote the development of ULs. However, whether MED12 mutations are associated with certain clinical characteristics in ULs remains...

29 Background: Xanthogranulomatous inflammation is an uncommon form of chronic 30 inflammation that is destructive to the normal tissue of affected organs. Although 31 xanthogranulomatous endometritis and xanthogranulomatous salpingitis of the female 32 genital tract has been described previously, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first 33 report of xanthogranulomatous inflammation with...