Heat Shock Proteins in Myometrium

Funded Activity Summary

Premature birth is a major cause of neonatal death and intellectual and other handicaps among the survivors. While neonatal intensive care has improved the survival of premature babies, there has been no reduction in the number of premature babies born, in fact the numbers are increasing. Our inability to reduce premature birth is partly related to our lack of knowledge of the physiological processes that lead to normal labour. As a result many of our drugs for women in premature labour are not very effective. We have recently identified a novel pathway that regulates the activity of the muscle cells that form the uterus. This project seeks to understand the biochemical processes that change a muscle cell so that it begins to contract actively at the end of pregnancy. Specifically the project will examine two proteins called HSP20 and HSP27. These proteins have recently been reported to play a critical role in the contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle cells in the heart and blood vessels. We have identified for the first time that these proteins are also present in the muscle of the human uterus. It is likely that they play a critical role in regulating the contractions of the uterus. By understanding this process better we may be able to design better treatments to prevent premature birth.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2007

End Date: 01-01-2009

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $454,691.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Obstetrics and Gynaecology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

parturition | pregnancy | premature labour | preterm birth | signal transduction

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