Human corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor: differences in subtype expression between pregnant and nonpregnant myometria

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism
D GrammatopoulosE W Hillhouse

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that CRH, which is the principal neuroregulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, is also involved in the mechanism of human labor. The human myometrium has been shown to express several high affinity CRH receptors, although the identities of the CRH receptor subtypes have yet to be identified. To investigate further the expression of the CRH receptor in human myometrium, we used RT-PCR, fluorescent in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence to identify and localize the four subtypes, 1 alpha, 1 beta, 2 alpha, and the variant C, of the CRH receptor. Interestingly, the CRH receptor subtypes in myometrium exhibit differential expression patterns; in human pregnant myometrium at term all four receptor-subtypes were expressed, whereas only the 1 alpha- and 1 beta-receptor subtypes were found in the nonpregnant myometrium. This would suggest that CRH, acting via different receptor subtypes, is able to exert different actions on the myometrium in the pregnant state compared to the nonpregnant state. Furthermore, in the pregnant human uterus, CRH receptors were localized in both smooth muscle and fibroblasts. These findings suggest that CRH receptor expression plays an important modulato...Continue Reading

Citations

Jan 20, 2012·Pediatric Research·Heather M ByersKristi S Borowski
Sep 14, 2012·Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology : RB&E·Fabian B FahlbuschJörg Dötsch
May 13, 2009·Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology : RB&E·Binhai CongXin Ni
Feb 7, 2013·Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry·Murray Thomson

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