[Sialidase activity in cervical connective tissue during cervix maturation and dilatation during labor]. / Szialidáz aktivitás alakulása a cervix uteri kötöszövetében a terhesség alatti érés és a szülés alatti dilatáció során.

The authors obtained small pieces of materials from portio vaginalis uteri of 122 women being in postmenopause and premenopause, in different stages of pregnancy and parturition concerning directly after delivery. Different biochemical investigations of these 30-200 mgs specimens were performed to study the physiological background of its ripening process. They examined the changes in activity of sialidase which cleaves terminal sialic acids. The authors performed these investigations with the use of Triticum vulgaris (WGA) and Limulus polyphemus (LPA) agglutinins (lectins) marked with FITC. The evaluation of the lectin linkage happened with fluorescence microscope. They evaluated the whole fluorescence of extracellular matrix but separately of different extracellular matrix elements as well. From their investigations was stated that the number of WGA and LPA binding sites of the uterine cervix increases predominantly in the 1st trimester pregnancy compared to the non-pregnant state. As compared to the 1st trimester they described a slight reduction of LPA- and WGA-binding sites in the 3rd trimester. The most impressing changes of LPA and WGA binding sites in the extracellular matrix were observed during parturition. These results coincide with the authors' previous experience whereas the sialidase activity increases significantly during parturition. These data support the assumption that the terminal sialic acids and the sialidase play a recently yet not cleared role in the ripening of the human uterine cervix during pregnancy and in dilatation at the time of parturition.

[Elastase of polymorphonuclear granulocytes. Determination in plasma in pregnancy and following premature rupture of the membranes]. / Elastase der polymorphkernigen Granulozyten. Bestimmung im Plasma während der Schwangerschaft und nach vorzeitigem Blasensprung.

Between May and October 1984 in the Department of Obstetrics of the Frauenklinik Berlin-Neukölln, 147 blood samples were taken from 106 women who were pregnant or already in labor. The purpose was to determine the concentration of the elastase of the polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Towards the end of pregnancy (from the beginning of the 28th gestational week till birth of the child), the range of 66 ng/ml-122 ng/ml with a median of 92 ng/ml was considered normal. It was shown that the concentration of elastase in the plasma of pregnant women is affected neither by the increasing gestational age nor by such pregnancy-associated diseases as the following: fetal hypotrophy, cervix insufficiency, premature onset of labor, or gestational diabetes. In addition, the elastase concentration in pregnant women who had had a premature rupture of the membranes was determined. The values were compared with other clinical and laboratory infection parameters, such as temperature, the total number of leukocytes as well as the number of rod-shaped leukocytes, and the duration of the opening of the membranes. The results indicated that under 135 ng/ml, there is most likely no infection present. Elastase concentrations between 135 ng/ml and 180 ng/ml lie in the pre-pathological range, concentrations above 180 ng/ml nearly always indicate the presence of an infection.