{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.03864168618266979, 'fraction_numerical': 0.01522248243559719, 'mean_word_length': 5.044811320754717, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 4, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Inflammatory cytokines and their soluble receptors during delivery and early life

Term labor may affect inflammatory cytokine concentrations in the mother, fetus, and neonate. Inflammatory cytokines are potent factors of acute-phase response. Inducing prostaglandin biosynthesis, they cause changes in myometrium (1) and dilatation of the cervix, leading finally to labor. It may be possible that procedures controlling infection are relatively alike with those, which regulate the procedure of normal parturition (2). Cytokines influence physical immunity of the fetus–neonate by means of various actions – e.g. bone marrow cell maturation, involvement in phagocytosis, and expression of adhesion molecules (3). Neonatal defense is of paramount importance during the critical period of transition from the normally sterile intrauterine environment to the extrauterine one, characterized by exposure to multiple antigenic stimuli. Therefore, cytokines express a leading role in the perinatal period being present in maternal and fetal tissues (2). We studied serum concentrations of interleukin-1b (IL-1b), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), as well as their soluble receptors – sIL6R, sTNF RI, and sTNF RII – during the perinatal period and early life. Cytokine and their receptor concentrations were measured by means of ELISA in 57 samples of maternal serum (MS), umbilical cord (UC), and neonatal serum in the first day and the fifth day after birth (Table I). Sera from 45 healthy adults (controls) were also analyzed. IL-1b and IL-6 concentrations in MS and in all neonatal samples – UC, 1N, and 5N – were significantly elevated, compared to those in control samples (P< 0.0001). MS and UC concentrations depended significantly on the mode of delivery, being higher in vaginal delivery than that in elective cesarean section (P< 0.03, P< 0.0005). TNF-a concentrations in UC, 1N, and 5N samples were significantly higher than those in MS and controls, presenting a continuous increase from UC to 5N, whereas MS concentrations did not differ from controls. sIL-6R, sTNF RI, and sTNF RII concentrations in all studied samples were 3–4 orders of magnitude greater than the corresponding cytokine concentrations. Concentrations in all neonatal samples were significantly higher than those in MS and in controls. sIL-6R concentrations in MS did not differ from controls, whereas both sTNF RI and sTNF RII MS concentrations were significantly higher than those in controls. Only sTNF RI values in UC showed a dependence on the mode of delivery (P< 0.01).