Development ofa novel therapeutic drug for treatment of uterine cervical incompetence

Research Project

Project/Area Number	14571532
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Obstetrics and gynecology
Research Institution	Hirosaki University
Principal Investigator	TANAKA Kanji Hirosaki University Hospital, assistant staff, 医学部附属病院, 助手 (20311540)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	HIGUTI Tsuyoshi Hirosaki University Hospital, Associated professor, 医学部附属病院, 講師 (60238285) 佐藤秀平弘前大学, 医学部附属病院, 助教授 (80225945)
Project Period (FY)	2002 – 2003
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2003)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000) Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000) Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Keywords	cervical incompetence / Hyaluronic acid(hyaluronan) / 4-methylumbelliferone / preterm labor / 子宮頚管無力症 / 4メチルウンベリフェロン / 切迫早産 / 子宮頚管由来培養線維芽細胞
Research Abstract	We continued study about the effect of MU for hyaluronic acid synthesis in human cervical fibroblast this time. It was studied whether HA synthesis in the cell was inhibited under cytokine presence, which play an important role for cervical ripening and onset og labor, by MU addition. METHODS Human cervical fibroblasts obtained at the time of an operation was cultured. It was added IL-1 β,IL-6 and IL-8(0.1〜50ng/ml) to a cultured medium. The medium was collected after it was divided a cultured cell more into a group of MU addition, a group of non-addition, and it was cultured for 48 hours. The amount of HA was measured by sandwitch binding protein assay method with HA binding protein. REAULTS The amount of HA synthesized by human cervix fibroblasts increased in IL-8, an IL-6 addition group in comparison with a group of contorol(a cytokine additive-free group) significantly. However, the amount of HA was inhibited in less than 50% in all groups by addition of MU. CONCLUSION The finding that MU almost completely inhibited production of hyaluronic acid, which plays an important role in ripening of the cervix, suggested an inhibitory effect of MU on ripening of the cervix. Therefore, we propose that MU may be a novel therapeutic drug to treat cervical incompetence, and to prevent preterm delivery.