Autophagy and Human Parturition: Evaluation of LC3 Expression in Placenta from Spontaneous or Medically Induced Onset of Labor

Table 1

Clinical characteristics and autophagy.

	Spontaneous labor (𝑛=7)	Induced labor (𝑛=21)
Maternal age (years)	29.7±5.8	31.9±5.3
Gestational age (weeks)	39.0±0.8	39.9±1.2
Maternal pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m^2)	22.6±3.7	22.5±2.9
Neonatal birth weight (grams)	3271.4±499.3	3412.0±354.6
Placental weight (grams)	434.6±90.1	441.3±78.7
F/P ratio	7.6±1.1	7.9±1.3
Placental surface (mm^2)	199.2±55.9	219.1±58.8
Time to parturition (minutes)	276.7±499.3	660.2±388.5^∗
pH	7.25±0.09	7.25±0.03
BE (mmol/L)	−5.4±2.8	−4.3±2.5
Lac (mmol/L)	6.1±2.7	5.2±1.8
pO2 (mmHg)	25.4±5.5	20.5±6.8
pCO2 (mmHg)	50.4±11.8	51.1±6.4
Glu (mmol/L)	4.9±0.9	5.1±1.2
LC3-II/𝛼-tubulin (ODu × mm^2)	1.4±0.3	1.1±0.1

BMI: body mass index; F/P ratio: ratio between fetal weight at birth and placental weight; BE: base excessl Lac: lactate; Glu: glucose; ODu: optical density unit.
∗P = 0.03 versus spontaneous labor.