title: Elevated cerebrospinal fluid level of substance P and decreased undecapeptidase activity at term pregnancy.
abstract: This paper reports a study of substance P and its converting enzyme substance P endopeptidase (SPE) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from women at term pregnancy. A method was developed to assess the CSF levels of substance P itself with minimum contribution from prestages or fragments of the undecapetide. The measured activity was compared with that detected in CSF from control, non-pregnant, non-puerperal women. The result indicates a significant increase in substance P-like immunoreactivity at term pregnancy (19.9 +/- 3.9 fmol/ml, n = 10) compared with that of control subjects (12.3 +/- 2.8 fmol/ml, n = 9; P < 0.001). This elevation was suggested to reflect an increased activity in spinal sensory neurons at this stage of pregnancy. The activity of SPE was assessed by measuring the product substance P1-7 by a radioimmunoassay specific for this fragment. It was found that the enzyme activity was significantly decreased in CSF from pregnant women (11.2 +/- 0.71 pmol/h.ml), compared with control samples (18.4 +/- 0.73 pmol/h.ml; P < 0.05). Moreover, a significant negative correlation was found to exist between the level of substance P and the activity of SPE (P < 0.05, r2 = 0.65), suggesting that the enzyme may be involved in a mechanism regulating the level of substance P concentration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lyrenäs
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thörnwall
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Le Grevés
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nyberg
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*; D011263:Pregnancy Trimester, Third; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013373:Substance P / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid*
chemical_list: D013373:Substance P; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases; C029610:substance P degrading enzyme