Spatiotemporal mapping of ex vivo myometrial contractions in adenomyosis

Oxytocin receptor density is 1.8-fold higher in ex vivo myometrial tissue from adenomyosis patients, yet oxytocin induces a smaller increase in contraction frequency than in controls.

• Why it matters: Uterine dyscontractility is linked to pain, infertility, and adenomyosis, but the junctional zone’s contractile behavior and oxytocin responsiveness are unclear when studied directly.
• What they did: In a prospective ex vivo case-control study of hysterectomy samples (adenomyosis n = 16; controls n = 12), full-thickness serosa-to-endometrium slices were mapped by time-lapse spatiotemporal analysis before and after oxytocin.
• The result: Contractile waves propagated across outer and inner myometrium with similar baseline frequency and amplitude in both groups, while oxytocin increased frequency and velocity and shifted wave origin to the inner myometrium in both.

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