IMR Press / CEOG / Volume 31 / Issue 3 / pii/2004058

Clinical and Experimental Obstetrics & Gynecology (CEOG) is published by IMR Press from Volume 47 Issue 1 (2020). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with S.O.G.

Experimental Research

Morphological and morphometric changes in the cervix uteri of the rat at term pregnancy induced by hyaluronidase

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1 Obstetrics Department, Federal University of São Paulo, School of Medicine, São Paulo (Brazil)
2 Morphology Department, Federal University of São Paulo, School of Medicine, São Paulo (Brazil)
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2004, 31(3), 225–228;
Published: 10 September 2004
Abstract

Intracervix injection of hyaluronidase during pregnancy has been proposed to accelerate cervix ripening. We evaluated the mor­phological and morphometric changes of the uterine cervix of pregnant rats, caused by the action of this enzyme. Ten female rats were equally divided between an experimental group (G II) and a control group (G I). On the 20th day of pregnancy, under light microscopy, a greater thinning of the superficial muciferous epithelium, with lamina propria rich in blood vessels and in eosinophils was found in G II. The histometric count of G II showed a smaller number of collagen fibers (average 248 vs 552 in the control group) and a greater concentration of eosinophils (average 18.20 vs 9.20 in the control group). The Student's t-test showed a sig­nificant difference in collagen fibers (p < 0.0001) and in eosinophils (p < 0.0007). The action of this enzyme caused a predomi­nance of flaccid connective tissue, a lower concentration of collagen fibers and an increased concentration of eosinophils, confirm­ing its utilization in cervix ripening.

Keywords
Labor
Cervix ripening
Hyaluronidase
Collagen
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