[Collagenolytic activity of human cervical tissue, following local application of prostaglandin E2 (PG E2), using a...

A biological assay was used to determine collagenolytic activities in cervical tissue of 16 patients, who had received PG E2 treatment for cervical ripening, and of another 16 patients in whom cervical ripening had occurred spontaneously. The cervical tissue required for the assay was obtained by small biopsy after delivery. The first group of probands received 1.25 mg PG E2 in aqueous solution which was locally applied to the cervix through a portio adapter. Mean lysis, related to a tissue sample of 2 mm in diameter and following twelve hours of incubation, amounted to 7.82 +/- 2.58 mm2 in the treated group and to 5.39 +/- 1.06 mm2 in the untreated group. A statistically significant difference of p less than 0.005 was, accordingly, obtained by a Student-t test of unpaired observation. The results of the author's tests have shown that rise in collagenolytic activity was one of the major effects when prostaglandin was locally applied for cervical ripening.