A novel 3D cell culture human uterine contractility assay for high-throughput scr

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Several disorders in reproductive medicine are results of changes in smooth muscle contractile activity. Increased myometrial contraction can lead to preterm labor, which affects 12% of the US population. However, the mechanisms involved in the transition from uterine quiescence to contractility at the onset of labor are not well-known. As a result, the management of labor disorders such as preterm birth is poor, particularly tocolytic therapies, which could delay preterm labor, but have not been effectively proven and tested for this purpose. The slow progress in understanding myometrial contractility and tocolytic management of preterm labor can be attributed to the lack of faithful in vitro models of the myometrium, aswell as the ability to efficiently screen tocolytic compounds in a high-throughput fashion. While in vivo models are used in the uterine contractility research, pronounced differences in how animals and humans give labor mean that pathological change