A study on relationship between chorioamnionitis and fetal lung maturation.

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We previously reported that the amniotic surfactant concentrations in the patients with chorioamnionitis(CAM) was signuficantly higher than that in the patients without CAM.Moreover, recently it was reported that the occurrence of RDS was significantly reduced in infants who were born of pregnant womem with CAM.We investigated whether lung surfactant production in fetal rabbit lung could be enhanced by endotoxin or cytocain in two experiments described below. 1) Endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) of 0.1-100ug/kg was administered intravenously to pregnant rabbits at 24-25 days of gestation. On 26 days of gestation fetal lungs were obtained by cesarean section. LPS was significantly stimulated the incorporation of choline chloride into phosphatidylcholine (PC) in fetal rabbit lung slices. It coresponded to the incorporation rate of fetal lung on 28 days of gestation. LPS added into incubation medium did not enhanc the incorporation of choline in to PC.However, Interleukin 6 added into the medium stimulated the incorporation of choline in fetal rabbit lung slices. 2) We made a model of intrauterine infection of pregnant rabbits by infusion of LPS or cytocains into space between fetal membrans and uterine wall using minipump with a polyethylene tube. Administration of LPS,IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha was shown to enhance significantly the appearance of m-RNA of pulmonary surfactant apo-protein A in fetal lung at 19 days of gestation.In conclusion, it was suggested that fetal lung maturation was stimurated during intrauterine infection from the results of our studies.