Does pregnancy increase excitability of mechanosensitive afferents innervating the uterine cervix?
Afferents that innervate the uterine cervix sprout into this tissue during late pregnancy, and estrogen increases excitability of these mechanosensitive afferents. Here, the authors show that excitability also increases during pregnancy. These data suggest that, close to the onset of labor, there is an increased input to the spinal cord from cervical distension and an increased depolarization of afferent terminals in the cervix, effects that could influence pain and the progress of labor.
In IRCU 1) not renal stones in situ, but disturbed oxidative metabolism apparently modulates nephron functionality, ending up in higher renal N-Alb-P release, urinary volume, sodium and pH of fasting urine; 2) etiologically unknown decline of uricemia may represent antioxidant deficiency and cause a risk of hydroxyapatite crystallization and stone formation in a weakly acidic or alkaline inhibitor-deficient and N-Alb-P-rich milieu; 3) several observations, linking oxidative and systemic metabolism, are compatible with Ca stone initiation beyond tubules.