Changes in desmosine and pyridinoline crosslinks during rapid synthesis and degradation of elastin and collagen in the rat uterus

摘要: Abstract The wet weight of the rat uterus increased 8-fold during pregnancy and fell by 70% within 5 days postpartum. Uterine collagen about 5-fold also days. crosslink pyridinoline remained constant at 0.28 mole/mole every time point, with possible exception 11–12 pregnancy. link can therefore form short span a few days, feature presumed to be necessary maintain full mechanical strength labor. elastin pregnancy, but desmosines did not keep pace from normal value 1.43 low 0.89 term. Moreover, content reached maximum several prior parturition then declined continuously During this decline there was selective loss poorly crosslinked elastin. cannot used as direct measure uterine content, because their changing levels. Desmosines were measured both ELISA amino acid analyzer. two methods gave almost identical results when first separated each other.