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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Assessing Cellular Stress and Inflammation in Discrete Oxytocin-secreting Brain Nuclei in the Neonatal Rat Before and After First Colostrum Feeding
09:12

Assessing Cellular Stress and Inflammation in Discrete Oxytocin-secreting Brain Nuclei in the Neonatal Rat Before and After First Colostrum Feeding

Published on: November 14, 2018

Labor and inflammation increase the expression of oxytocin receptor in human amnion

Vasso Terzidou1, Andrew M Blanks, Sung Hye Kim

  • 1Imperial College London, Parturition Research Group, Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology, Hammersmith Hospital Campus, Du Cane Road, London, United Kingdom. v.terzidou@imperial.ac.uk

Biology of Reproduction
|October 8, 2010
PubMed

The oxytocin/oxytocin receptor (OXT/OXTR) system plays an important role in the regulation of parturition. The amnion is a major source of prostaglandins and inflammatory cytokine synthesis, which increase both before and during labor. Amnion is a noncontractile tissue; therefore, the role played by OXT/OXTR in this tissue will be fundamentally different from the role played in myometrial contractions. In the present study, we demonstrate increased OXTR mRNA and protein concentrations in human amnion epithelial cells associated with the onset of labor. We show that incubation of primary human amnion epithelial cells with IL1B results in a rapid, transient up-regulation of OXTR mRNA expression, which peaks in prelabor samples after 6 h. Incubation of prelabor amnion epithelial cells with OXT results in a marked increase of prostaglandin E(2) synthesis, and we demonstrate that OXT activates the extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase signal transduction pathway to stimulate up-regulation of cyclo-oxygenase 2 in human amnion epithelial cells. The increased ability of human amnion to produce prostaglandins in response to OXT treatment suggests a complementary role for the OXT/OXTR system in the activation of human amnion and the onset of labor.

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