The Association between Intrauterine Inflammation and Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery at Term: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND:Different factors contribute to the onset of labor at term. In animal models onset of labor is characterized by an inflammatory response. The role of intrauterine inflammation, although implicated in preterm birth, is not yet established in human term labor. We hypothesized that intrauterine inflammation at term is associated with spontaneous onset of labor. METHODS/RESULTS:In two large urban hospitals in the Netherlands, a cross-sectional study of spontaneous onset term vaginal deliveries and elective caesarean sections (CS), without signs of labor, was carried out. Placentas and amniotic fluid samples were collected during labor and/or at delivery. Histological signs of placenta inflammation were determined. Amniotic fluid proinflammatory cytokine concentrations were measured using ELISA. A total of 375 women were included. In term vaginal deliveries, more signs of intrauterine inflammation were found than in elective CS: the prevalence of chorioamnionitis was higher (18 vs 4%, p = 0.02) and amniotic fluid concentration of IL-6 was higher (3.1 vs 0.37 ng/mL, p<0.001). Similar results were obtained for IL-8 (10.93 vs 0.96 ng/mL, p<0.001) and percentage of detectable TNF-alpha (50 vs 4%, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS:This large cross-sectional study shows that spontaneous term delivery is characterized by histopathological signs of placenta inflammation and increased amniotic fluid proinflammatory cytokines

Patterns of prey selection of Trypoxylon (Trypargilum) lactitarse Saussure (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) in southern Brazil

This study was carried out in the Parque Municipal das Araucárias, in the municipality of Guarapuava, southern Brazil. A total of 449 T. lactitarse nests were collected using trap-nests of different diameters. Fifty three species of spiders belonging to 7 families were captured by T. lactitarse. Araneidae was the most captured family and has been strongly represented by the genus Eustala. Through Bray-Curtis's coefficient and the unweighted pair group method average (UPGMA), the spiders species can be divided into 3 groups: the smaller group includes the most abundant species (Eustala sp1, Eustala sp2, Acacesia villalobosi, Alpaida sp1 and Araneus corporosus), the second group includes species with intermediate abundance (Wagneriana iguape, Araneus omnicolor, Eustala sp4, Alpaida grayi, Eustala sp3, Larinia t-notata, Mangora sp1 and Wagneriana iguape), and the third and largest group includes the least abundant species (Aysha gr. brevimana 1, Eustala sp5, Wagneriana eupalaestra, Alpaida scriba, Alpaida veniliae, Araneus aff. omnicolor, Araneus sicki, Eustala sp8, Mangora sp2, Mangora sp3, Wagneriana juquia, Alpaida sp2, Araneus blumenau, Eustala sp6, Eustala sp7 and Ocrepeira galianoae). Of 2,029 identified spiders, 1,171 were captured in the Araucaria forest, 612 in grassland areas and 246 in the swamp. Grassland and swamp areas evidenced greater similarity between them than to the Araucaria Forest, regarding presence-absence of spider species in T. lactitarse's diet, as well as regarding species abundance in these habitats. The juvenile number (56%) was significantly higher than the female (38%) and male (6%) percentages