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Nuclear Progesterone Receptors in the Human Pregnancy Myometrium: Evidence that Parturition Involves Functional Progesterone Withdrawal Mediated by Increased Expression of Progesterone Receptor-A

2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: 92; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1210/jc.2007-0077

1945-7197

Amy Merlino, Toni Welsh, Huiqing Tan, Li Juan Yi, Vernon Cannon, Brian M. Mercer, Sam Mesiano,

Endometriosis Research and Treatment

We examined whether human parturition involves functional progesterone withdrawal mediated by changes in myometrial expression of progesterone receptors (PRs)-A and -B.Our objectives were to: 1) measure PR-A and PR-B protein levels in human pregnancy myometrium and determine whether the PR-A to PR-B ratio changes with advancing gestation and labor onset; and 2) determine how changes in the PR-A to PR-B ratio affect myometrial cell progesterone responsiveness.PR protein levels and cellular localization were measured by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry, respectively, in lower uterine segment uterine wall tissue from preterm (<37 wk; not laboring; n = 5) and term (37-40 wk; not in labor: n = 6; in labor: n = 5) cesarean delivery. The capacity for PR-A and PR-B, alone and in combination, to mediate genomic progesterone responsiveness measured by the activity of a progesterone-responsive reporter plasmid was examined by artificially modulating their levels in the PHM1-31 myometrial cell line.PR-A and PR-B immunostaining was detected only in the nucleus of myometrial cells. The PR-A to PR-B protein ratio was 0.49 +/- 0.082 (mean +/- sem) in preterm tissue; increased to 1.03 +/- 0.071 (P < 0.001) in nonlaboring term tissue; and increased further to 2.65 +/- 0.344 (P < 0.001) in laboring term tissue. Only PR-B mediated progesterone-induced transcriptional activity. PR-A had no effect alone but markedly decreased PR-B-mediated progesterone responsiveness.Functional progesterone withdrawal in human parturition may be mediated by an increase in the myometrial PR-A to PR-B ratio due to increased PR-A expression.