Objective: Our purpose was to investigate whether leukemia inhibitory factor is associated with intraamniotic infection.
Study design: A comparative clinical study of amniotic fluid leukemia inhibitory factor concentrations was performed.
Results: Leukemia inhibitory factor was undetectable (< 1 ng/ml) by radioreceptor assay during normal pregnancy at midtrimester and at term. Among women in labor those with intraamniotic infection had higher leukemia factor concentrations than those without infection before term (p < 0.001) and at term (p < 0.005). The leukemia inhibitory factor concentrations correlated with the amniotic fluid white blood cell counts (r = 0.47) (p < 0.001). In cultured human gestational tissue explants, leukemia inhibitory factor release was significantly enhanced by endotoxin, interleukin-1 alpha, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha however, leukemia inhibitory factor did not enhance the release of prostaglandin E2 by these tissues.
Conclusions: Amniotic fluid leukemia inhibitory factor concentrations were elevated during intraamniotic infection and gestational tissues released leukemia inhibitory factor in response to bacterial products and inflammatory mediators.