Human fetal membranes: Their preterm premature rupture

At the 1999 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Reproduction the re were three speakers in the minisymposium entitled "I've got to get out o f here: fetal-maternal interactions involved in parturition". The primary f ocus was on research progress in understanding the mechanisms involved in h uman parturition. Although the title of the symposium emphasized the need t o "get out", there was considerable emphasis on understanding the problem o f "getting out too early" or preterm birth. While preterm birth is unusual in most species, it is of major clinical importance in the human. The data presented by one of the speakers is reviewed here with a focus on preterm l abor and preterm premature rupture of the fetal membranes as mechanisms inv olved in the diverse pathology of preterm birth.