Bile acids and ursodeoxycholic acid alter gene expression in primary myometrial cells
File(s)
Article in press
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP), characterised by elevated maternal serum bile acids (BAs), increases risk of preterm labour that may be mitigated by ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment. How different BA species, including UDCA, affect myometrial function remains imperfectly understood. Primary human myometrial cells were isolated from women with uncomplicated pregnancy and treated with taurocholic acid (TCA, 150μmol/l), tauro-UDCA (TUDCA, 150μmol/l) or both TCA and TUDCA (75μmol/l each); some were stimulated oxytocin (10nmol/l, 6 hours). Gene expression was determined using real-time quantitative PCR, and IL-6 protein in supernatant using ELISA. TCA increased OXTR mRNA expression after 4, 10, 18 and 24 hours. Following overnight BA pre-treatment, 6-hour combined treatment with TCA and TUDCA led to highest OXTR (p<0.01 vs control) and increased oxytocin-induced COX-2 (p<0.05) and IL-6 mRNA (p=0.06) expression. IL-6 protein was increased by TCA but not TUDCA. This indicates elevated BAs in maternal serum may alter expression of oxytocin-responsive genes by upregulating OXTR expression. Combined exposure to high TCA and TUDCA increased expression of OXTR, COX-2 and IL-6, but not IL-6 protein, while TUDCA alone had no effect. Altered OXTR expression and downstream gene expression changes may contribute to ICP-associated myometrial contractility and preterm birth risk, meriting further study.
Date Issued
2026-09-07
Date Acceptance
2026-08-28
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2026
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41598-026-69693-y
Subjects
Preterm labour
Bile acids
Ursodeoxycholic acid
Oxytocin
Myometrium
Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2026-09-07