Results

Stemming from these findings, we decided to further confirm these results by using primary myometrial cells collected from pregnant women to obtain a more physiologically relevant insight into the inflammatory processes occurring in the pregnant human myometrium at term (37-40 gestational weeks). To obtain a broader understanding of the individual uterine tissues’ contributions during the labor process we collected primary cells from pregnant term decidua in addition to primary myometrial cells. Myometrium tissue biopsies (term not in labor) were used for the myometrial cell derivation, and decidua was collected from the fetal membranes (term not in labor) for the decidual cell isolation. Both tissues were enzymatically digested and isolated primary cells were grown until confluency, at which time both cultures were serum starved for 48 h followed by the collection of conditioned media. Forty-five cytokines secreted by these two adjoined uterine compartments were analyzed simultaneously by multiplex assay (data not shown). Media conditioned by term not in labor decidua (N= 11) contained significantly higher (10-to 1000-fold) concentrations of 37 chemokines detected compared to media conditioned by term not in labor myometria (N= 11). We hypothesized that the decidua plays a coordinating role at the maternal-fetal interface by contributing to myometrial inflammation.