PLoS medicine
-
Preterm labor, failure to progress, and postpartum hemorrhage are the common causes of maternal and neonatal mortality or morbidity. All result from defects in the complex mechanisms controlling labor, which coordinate changes in the uterine fundus, lower segment, and cervix. We aimed to assess labor-associated gene expression profiles in these functionally distinct areas of the human uterus by using microarrays. ⋯ Our results provide support for many of the established processes of parturition and also describe novel-to-labor genes not previously associated with this process. The elucidation of these mechanisms likely to be fundamental for controlling labor is an important prerequisite to the development of effective treatments for major obstetric problems--including prematurity, with its long-term consequences to the health of mother and offspring.
-
Baune and Hay discuss the strengths and limitations of an ecological study that found an inverse correlation between suicide rates and fluoxetine prescriptions.