Positive ossociation of serum interleukin-1β and CRH levels in women with pre-term labor

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that interleukin-1β (IL-1β) might be involved in the increase of the circulating levels of placental-derived CRH leading to the initiation of pre-term labor. Subjects and methods: Forty-eight primigravidae with a singleton viable pregnancy between 28 and 34 weeks of gestation were studied. The subjects were divided in two groups: group A consisted of 30 pregnant women (mean age±SD; 22±1.1 yr old) presented with preterm labor (mean gestational age±SD; 30.6±2.3 weeks) and group B consisted of 18 pregnant women (24±2.6 yr old) with normal pregnancies (29.8±3.1 weeks). CRH and IL-1β levels were measured in blood specimens collected from all the study subjects on admission. Results: Women of group A presented significantly higher serum CRH levels (mean±SE; 1.1 8±1.83 ng/ml) compared to those of group B (0.48±0.67 ng/ml) (p