CRH receptors in myometrium

早产是新生儿死亡以及幸存者智力和其他残疾的一个主要原因。虽然新生儿重症监护提高了早产儿的存活率，但早产儿的数量并没有减少，事实上，早产儿的数量还在增加。我们无法减少早产的部分原因与我们缺乏导致正常分娩的生理过程的知识有关。因此，我们对早产妇女的许多药物不是很有效。我们的研究表明，胎盘中产生的促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素（CRH）在决定妊娠期长短方面起着关键作用。我们测量了孕妇血液中这种激素的水平，结果表明，早产的孕妇血液中这种激素的增长速度比正常孕妇快，而晚产的孕妇血液中这种激素的增长速度比正常孕妇慢。它就像一种时钟来决定怀孕的时间长短。目前尚不清楚这种激素是如何促进分娩的。特别令人费解的是，CRH的某些作用似乎更可能导致子宫放松而不是收缩。我们希望验证这样一种观点，即这种激素在怀孕后期迅速上升，会导致子宫发生变化，从而阻止放松的途径，导致收缩。为了进行这些研究，我们将使用经剖宫产妇女知情同意捐赠的小块子宫。这些研究的结果可以让我们设计出更好的方法来预防早产，并预防许多脑瘫和智力障碍的病例。

Premature birth is a major cause of neonatal death and intellectual and other handicaps among the survivors. While neonatal intensive care has improved the survival of premature babies, there has been no reduction in the number of premature babies born, in fact the numbers are increasing. Our inability to reduce premature birth is partly related to our lack of knowledge of the physiological processes that lead to normal labour. As a result many of our drugs for women in premature labour are not very effective. Our work has shown that a hormone called corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) made in the placenta plays a critical role in determining the length of a pregnancy. We have measured the levels of this hormone in the blood of pregnant women and shown that it increases more rapidly than normal in women who deliver prematurely and more slowly than normal in women who deliver late. It acts as a kind of clock to determine the length of pregnancy. What is not known is how this hormone acts to bring on labour. What is particularly puzzling is that some of the actions of the CRH seem likely to cause the uterus to relax rather than to contract. We wish to test the idea that the rapidly rising levels of this hormone in late pregnancy cause changes in the uterus that stop the pathways to relaxation and lead to contraction. To perform these studies we will use small pieces of uterus donated with informed consent from women undergoing caesarean section. The results of these studies may allow us to design better ways of preventing premature birth and prevent many cases of cerebral palsy and intellectual handicap.