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Updated: Aug 12, 2026
Contractility Measurements of Human Uterine Smooth Muscle to Aid Drug Development
Published on: January 26, 2018
Effect of parathyroid hormone-related peptide on human and rat myometrial contractility in vitro
M M Slattery1, M J O'leary, J J Morrison
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University of Ireland Galway, and the Clinical Science Institute, University College Hospital Galway, Ireland.
Objectives:
The aims of this study were primarily to investigate the effects of parathyroid hormone-related peptide (human fragment 1-34) on human nonpregnant and pregnant (nonlabor and labor) myometrial contractility in vitro and secondarily to compare these effects with those of parathyroid hormone-related peptide on rat myometrial contractility.
Study Design:
Isometric tension recording was performed under physiologic conditions in isolated myometrial strips obtained at hysterectomy and cesarean delivery and from Sprague-Dawley rats. The effect of cumulative additions of parathyroid hormone-related peptide (1, 10, and 100 nmol/L) on myometrial contractility was measured and the significance of results was assessed by 2-way analysis of variance.
Results:
Parathyroid hormone-related peptide exerted a statistically significant net relaxant effect on myometrial contractility in human nonpregnant myometrium (34.71%; P<.01), in human pregnant myometrium obtained before (18.27%; P <.05) but not after (10.32%; P>.05) the onset of labor, and in rat tissue (31.60%; P<.01).
Conclusions:
Parathyroid hormone-related peptide exerts a relaxant effect on human and rat myometrial tissue. In human myometrium, sensitivity to parathyroid hormone-related peptide is reduced in pregnancy and abolished by the onset of labor.
