[Morphologic and biochemical aspects of prostaglandin-induced cervix ripening]

For examination by electron microscopy tissue samples were taken from the posterior lip of the cervix of 8 patients having a termination of pregnancy at 9-12th week gestation and 16 patients of comparable gestational age who had an intracervical application of either 2 ml 5% tylose or 50 micrograms sulprostone-tylose gel 8 hours before biopsy. The efficacy of cervical priming was demonstrated objectively by tonometric studies. In addition, collagenase and protease activities were determined in the cervical tissue extracts of the different treatment groups. For identification of typical collagen fragments SDS-polyacrylamide-gel-electrophoresis were carried out on the acetic acid soluble extracts. The local application of sulprostone gel induced a marked multifocal loosening of the collagenous framework; there was no evidence for leucocyte infiltration or necrosis caused by the prostaglandin (PG) pretreatment. In the areas of disorganized collagen fibres cervical fibroblasts seemed to be activated characterized by fine granular loosening of the cytoplasma, dilated cisternae of rough endoplasmatic reticulum, vacuolized enlarged mitochondria and an increased number of cytoplasmatic vesicles close to the cell surface. Collagenase and protease activities were found in all extracts of the different treatment groups, however, PG-application led to no significant increase in enzymatic activities. There was no evidence for the presence of typical collagen cleavage products in the SDS-electrophoresis. Contradictory to the hitherto published literature enzymatic collagen degradation does not play an essential role in PG-induced cervical ripening.