Changes in cervical fibronectin levels during pregnancy, labor and in the postpartum period

The authors analysed the fibronectin content of the uterine cervix during pregnancy and delivery. The aim of their investigation was furnishing data to the biochemical changes during cervical maturation. The ripening of the uterine cervix during pregnancy is a result of complicated interactions between different macromolecules, where the fibronectin plays a key role. The quantitative determination of the extracellular matrix fibronectin is impossible because its extraction from tissues recently is not solved. Taking this fact in consideration the authors choose a semiquantitative method, being reliable indicator of changes in fibronectin content of uterine cervix. They took small pieces of materials from portio vaginalis uteri of 139 women being in postmenopause and premenopause, in different stages of pregnancy and parturition concerning directly after delivery. The slides were incubated, with rabbit-anti-human fibronectin-FITC. The evaluation of fluorescence happened with an Axiophot (Zeiss) microscope. Authors stated that the fibronectin content in the cervical extracellular matrix and in the cellular membrane of fibroblasts increases during the 1st trimester pregnancy. This increase can be shown in the 3rd trimester as well and it drops significantly during delivery. They could not found any relationship between the leucocyte invasion observed during delivery and the changes of cervical fibronectin content. These observations call our attention to the importance of fibronectin in cervical ripening respectively dilatation and the need of further examinations.