title: Dexmedetomidine modifies uterine contractions in pregnancy terms of rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study was aimed at determining the effective doses of Dexmedetomidine (Dex) involved in amplitude of contraction-force and frequency of uterine rings in pregnancy terms of rats. All experiments involving animal subjects were carried out with the approval of animal care and use Ethical Committee of Cukurova University. Experiments were performed on female Albino-Wistar rats (200-260 g; n = 40).
  
  
  METHODS
  Uterine rings from pregnant rats were placed in organ bath with Krebs and calcium ion (Ca(2+))-free solutions to record and exposed to serially increasing log10 concentrations of Dex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Krebs solution, while Dex caused an increase in the spontaneous contraction-forces in all pregnancy terms of rats in a significant dose-dependent manner, it led to a decrease in contraction-frequency in late-pregnancy term of rats. In Ca(2+)-free, the spontaneous contraction-force decreased in late-pregnancy term and increased in early and middle-pregnancy terms. In addition, while Dex increased the contraction-frequency in early and middle-pregnancy terms, it decreased in late-pregnancy term in a dose-dependent manner.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data were subjected to one-way analysis of variance. Repeated measures were employed for comparison of several group means through the Tukey post-hoc test (SPSS 10.00 Inc., Chicago, Ill, USA). P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggested that Dex might differently alter the spontaneous contraction-forces and contraction-frequencies of uterine rings in all pregnancy terms of rats in Krebs and Ca(2+)-free solutions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biophysics, Çukurova University, Faculty of Medicine, Adana, Turkey.
authors.forename: Işil
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Öcal
authors.forename: Yasemin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Güneş
authors.forename: Tufan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mert
authors.forename: Dilek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Özcengiz
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Günay
mesh_terms: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D020927:Dexmedetomidine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014590:Uterine Contraction / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D018712:Analgesics, Non-Narcotic; D020927:Dexmedetomidine; D002118:Calcium
keywords: Ca2+ influx; Contraction-force; Dexmedetomidine; contraction-frequency; pregnancy terms of rats; uterine muscle