od-sherw@life.illinois.edu
482A Burrill Hall
Office: (217) 333-9099
Lab: (217) 244-1022
Fax: (217) 333-1133
Mail to:
Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology
524 Burrill Hall
407 S. Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
O David Sherwood
Professor of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and College of Medicine
Education
B.S. 1961 University of Wisconsin
M. S. 1967 University of Wisconsin
PhD. 1969 University of Wisconsin
Teaching Interests
Hormonal regulation of birth in mammals: physiological effects of the hormones relaxin, estrogen and progesterone.
Relaxin is a protein hormone that is produced and secreted during pregnancy in mammalian species. For more than 20 years Dr. Sherwood's laboratory has devoted research effort toward an understanding of the chemistry and physiology of relaxin. They were the first to isolate and chemically characterize relaxin and did so in two species-the rat and pig. Dr. Sherwood's laboratory then went on to determine the pattern of secretion of relaxin during pregnancy in rats and pigs and to demonstrate that the hormone has vital phsiological roles during pregnancy in both species. Working in concert with estrogen, relaxin promotes growth and softening of both the cervix and the vagina and thereby enables rapid and safe delivery. Relaxin also promotes development of the mammary apparatus and thereby enables normal lactational performance.
During the last six years Dr. Sherwood's laboratory has begun to examine the mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels whereby relaxin brings about its effects on the cervix and vagina. They have discovered that relaxin promotes a dramatic remodeling of the connective tissue. It reduces the organization and density of collagen fibers, reduces the length of elastin fibers and increases the diameter of arterioles. Relaxin also increases the number of cells in the cervix and vagina during the second half of pregnancy, and Dr. Sherwood's laboratory recently discovered that the hormone does so, at least in part, by acting as a cell survival factor. It inhibits the rate of programmed cell death.
The work in Dr. Sherwood's laboratory has clinical implications. The incidence of induced delivery has risen rapidly in the United States during the last 10 years, and a safe and effective cervical softening agent is needed to prepare the unripe cervix at the induction of delivery. Dr. Sherwood's laboratory has conducted experiments that demonstrated relaxin's clinical potential as a cervical softening agent. BAS Medical is presently conducting clinical trials with human relaxin for the purpose of preparing the cervix for delivery.
Representative Publications
Sherwood, O.D., Olson, L.M., Zhao, S., and Little, H.R. 2000. Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase activity diminishes the acute effects of relaxin on growth, but not softening of the cervix in the rat. Endocrinology, 141:2458–64. [Abstract]
Zhao, S. and Sherwood, O.D. 1998. Monoclonal antibodies specific for rat relaxin. X. Evidence that endogenous relaxin induces histological changes associated with growth and softening of the vagina during the second half of pregnancy in rat. Endocrinology, 139:4726–34. [Abstract]
Kohsaka, T., Min, G., Lukas, G., Trupin, S., Campbell, E.T., and Sherwood, O.D. 1998. Identification of specific relaxin-binding cells in the human female. Biology of Reproduction, 59:991–9. [Abstract]
Sherwood, O.D., Jungheim, E.S., Masferrer, J.L., and Cramer, J.M. 1998. Evidence that relaxin's effects on growth and softening of the cervix are not mediated through prostaglandins in the rat. Endocrinology, 139:867–73. [Abstract]
Burger, L.L. and Sherwood, O.D. 1998. Relaxin increases the accumulation of new epithelial and stromal cells in the rat cervix during the second half of pregnancy. Endocrinology, 139:3984–95. [Abstract]