Recent studies from Oregon Health & Science University add new data to chorioamnionitis.

According to recent research published in the journal Reproductive Sciences, "The authors assess causal, cellular and inflammatory links between intraamniotic infection with Ureaplasma parvum or Mycoplasma hominis and preterm labor in a nonhuman primate model. Long-term catheterized rhesus monkeys received intraamniotic inoculations of clinical isolates of Ureaplasma parvum serovar 1, M hominis, media control or physiological saline."

"Genital mycoplasmas were quantified in amniotic fluid (AF) and documented in fetal tissues by culture and PCR. In association with elevated AF colony counts for U parvum or M hominis, there was a sequential upregulation of AF leukocytes, proinflammatory cytokines, prostaglandin E2 and F2 alpha, metalloproteinase-9 and uterine activity (P

The researchers concluded: "U parvum or M huminis, as sole pathogens, elicit a robust proinflammatory response which contributes to preterm labor and fetal lung injury."

Novy and colleagues published their study in Reproductive Sciences (Ureaplasma parvum or Mycoplasma hominis as Sole Pathogens Cause Chorioamnionitis, Preterm Delivery, and Fetal Pneumonia in Rhesus Macaques. Reproductive Sciences, 2009;16(1):56-70).

For additional information, contact M.J. Novy, Oregon Health Sciences University, Oregon ...