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The impact of maternal obesity on in vivo uterine contractile activity during parturition in the rat

Muir, Ronan; Khan, Raheela; Shmygol, Anatoly; Quenby, Siobhan; Elmes, Matthew

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Authors

Ronan Muir

RAHEELA KHAN RAHEELA.KHAN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Cellular Physiology

Anatoly Shmygol

Siobhan Quenby



Abstract

Maternal obesity is associated with increased risk of prolonged and dysfunctional labor and emergency caesarean section. To elucidate the mechanisms behind the associated uterine dystocia, a translational animal model is required. Our previous work identified that exposure to a high-fat, high-cholesterol (HFHC) diet to induce obesity down-regulates uterine contractile associated protein expression and causes asynchronous contractions ex vivo. This study aims to investigate the impact of maternal obesity on uterine contractile function in vivo using intrauterine telemetry surgery. Virgin female Wistar rats were fed either a control (CON, n=6) or HFHC (n=6) diet for 6 weeks prior to conception, and throughout pregnancy. On Day 9 of gestation, a pressure-sensitive catheter was surgically implanted aseptically within the gravid uterus. Following 5 days recovery, intrauterine pressure (IUP) was recorded continuously until delivery of the 5th pup (Day 22). HFHC induced obesity led to a significant 1.5-fold increase in IUP (p=0.026) and fivefold increase in frequency of contractions (p=0.013) relative to CON. Determination of the time of labor onset identified that HFHC rats IUP (p=0.046) increased significantly 8h prior to 5th pup delivery, which contrasts to CON with no significant increase. Myometrial contractile frequency in HFHC rats significantly increased 12 h prior to delivery of the 5th pup (p=0.023) compared to only 3h in CON, providing evidence that labor in HFHC rats was prolonged by 9h. In conclusion, we have established a translational rat model that will allow us to unravel the mechanism behind uterine dystocia associated with maternal obesity.

Citation

Muir, R., Khan, R., Shmygol, A., Quenby, S., & Elmes, M. (2023). The impact of maternal obesity on in vivo uterine contractile activity during parturition in the rat. Physiological Reports, 11(5), Article e15610. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.15610

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 21, 2023
Online Publication Date Mar 2, 2023
Publication Date 2023-03
Deposit Date Feb 8, 2023
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Physiological Reports
Electronic ISSN 2051-817X
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 5
Article Number e15610
DOI https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.15610
Keywords Dysfunctional labor, dystocia, in vivo myometrial contractile activity, labor, maternal obesity, myometrial contractile function, parturition, telemetry surgery
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/17077612
Publisher URL https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.14814/phy2.15610

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Physiological Society and the American Physiological Society.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.




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