scholarly journals Analysis of bursting responses of oxytocin neurones in the rat in late pregnancy, lactation and after weaning.

1995 ◽  
Vol 486 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Q B Jiang ◽  
J B Wakerley
Reproduction ◽  
2000 ◽  
pp. 367-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
IA Antonijevic ◽  
JA Russell ◽  
RJ Bicknell ◽  
G Leng ◽  
AJ Douglas

Parturition is driven by a pulsatile pattern of oxytocin secretion, resulting from burst firing activity of supraoptic oxytocin neurones and reflected by induction of Fos expression. Rats were injected with progesterone on day 20 of pregnancy to investigate the role of the decreasing progesterone:ratio oestrogen ratio, which precedes delivery, in the activation of supraoptic neurones. Progesterone delayed the onset of birth by 28 h compared with vehicle (control) and prolonged the duration of delivery, which was overcome by pulsatile injections of oxytocin, indicating that the slow delivery may reflect impaired oxytocin secretion. Parturient rats pretreated with progesterone had fewer Fos immunoreactive nuclei in the supraoptic nucleus than did parturient rats pretreated with vehicle. The number of Fos immunoreactive nuclei was not restored after oxytocin injection, indicating that appropriate activation of oxytocin neurones is impaired by progesterone and also that there is a lack of stimulatory afferent drive. Fos expression increased in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius during parturition in rats pretreated with either vehicle or progesterone, but not in rats that had been pretreated with progesterone and induced with oxytocin, indicating that this input was inhibited. Endogenous opioids inhibit oxytocin neurones in late pregnancy and the opioid antagonist, naloxone, increases Fos expression in supraoptic nuclei by preventing inhibition. However, progesterone attenuated naloxone-induced Fos expression in the supraoptic nucleus in late pregnancy and naloxone administered during parturition did not accelerate the duration of births delayed by progesterone administration, indicating that progesterone does not act by hyperactivation of endogenous opioid tone. RU486, a progesterone receptor antagonist, enhanced supraoptic neurone Fos expression in late pregnancy, indicating progesterone receptor-mediated actions. Thus, progesterone withdrawal is necessary for appropriate activation of supraoptic and tractus solitarius neurones during parturition.


Author(s):  
G.A. Miranda ◽  
M.A. Arroyo ◽  
C.A. Lucio ◽  
M. Mongeotti ◽  
S.S. Poolsawat

Exposure to drugs and toxic chemicals, during late pregnancy, is a common occurrence in childbearing women. Some studies have reported that more than 90% of pregnant women use at least 1 prescription; of this, 60% used more than one. Another study indicated that 80% of the consumed drugs were not prescribed, and of this figure, 95% were “over-the-counter” drugs. Acetaminophen, the safest of all over-the-counter drugs, has been reported to induce fetal liver necrosis in man and animals and to have abortifacient and embryocidal action in mice. This study examines the degree to which acetaminophen affects the neonatal liver and kidney, when a fatty diet is simultaneously fed to the mother during late pregnancy.Timed Swiss Webster female mice were gavaged during late pregnancy (days 16-19) with fat suspended acetaminophen at a high dose, HD = 84.50 mg/kg, and a low dose, LD = 42.25 mg/kg; a control group received fat alone.


1978 ◽  
Vol 39 (03) ◽  
pp. 751-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
B L Sheppard ◽  
J Bonnar

SummaryThe fibrinolytic activity of the intimal cells of decidual spiral arteries and the syncytium of placental villi was studied by electron microscopy in ten normal full-term human pregnancies using a modification of the fibrin slide technique. Endothelial cells lining the intima of the decidual spiral arteries showed a considerably greater fibrinolytic activity than intimal cytotrophoblast and the syncytiotrophoblast showed no activity.The replacement of endothelial cells by an intimal lining of cytotrophoblast, and the presence of cytotrophoblast in the media, appears to play an important role in the reduction of the fibrinolytic activity of the vessel. This inhibition of fibrinolytic activity in the utero-placental arteries may be the physiological mechanism which controls fibrin deposition in these vessels and on the placental villi.


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