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Cigarette smoke increases the risk of ectopic pregnancy
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Under the action of nicotine, the wall of the fallopian tubes changes, becoming similar in structure to the wall of the uterus.
Cigarette smoke increases the risk of ectopic (ectopic) pregnancy, reducing the expression of a specific fallopian tube gene called BAD. This discovery was made by scientists Andrew Horne and Colin Duncan from the Medical Research Council at the Center for Reproductive Health in Edinburgh, UK. It was presented on July 3 at the Annual Meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Istanbul.
Ectopic pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg is attached outside the uterus, most often in the fallopian tubes. The frequency of pathology is 2 percent of all pregnancies. This is the most common cause of maternal death in the early stages of pregnancy, since with the growth of the embryo of the fallopian tube, the tube can burst, causing massive internal bleeding. Treatment of the pathology consists in the surgical removal of the fertilized egg from the tube or the injection of methotrexate into it. Currently, there is no effective way to prevent ectopic pregnancy.
According to Dr. Horn, ectopic pregnancy is the result of a combination of factors that disrupt the embryo's transport through the fallopian tube into the uterus, and changes in the structure of the tube wall, which makes implantation of the egg possible. And the main factor affecting the structure of the wall of the fallopian tubes is exactly smoking. Dr. Horn proved this by acting on the cells of the fallopian tube with the metabolite of nicotine - cotinine. It was found that cotinine reduces the expression of the BAD gene that regulates cell death (apoptosis). As a result, the wall of the fallopian tube acquires a structure that is similar to the structure of the uterine wall, so the egg can attach to it.
"We hope that our research in the future will help scientists find ways to prevent ectopic pregnancy, its better diagnosis and early treatment," the authors of the study believe.
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