[Changes of plasma motilin concentration in pregnancy and early postpartum period].

Plasma motilin concentration were determined by radioimmunoaction from 180 women during pregnancy and early postpartum period as compared with 20 healthy non-pregnant women. The results showed that mean plasma motilin concentration (384.40 +/- 110.30 ng/L) was higher in the first trimester of pregnancy than that of healthy non-pregnant women (366.12 +/- 96.23 ng/L), however, this difference did not reach statistical significance (P > 0.05). The mean plasma motilin concentration (323.90 +/- 125.10 ng/L) was lower in the second trimester of pregnancy than in the first trimester of pregnancy (P < 0.05), while the mean plasma motilin concentration in the third trimester of pregnancy (121.04 +/- 27.00 ng/L) was significantly lower than in second (P < 0.01) and the mean plasma motilin concentration in 3-5 d after delivery (443.05 +/- 140.79 ng/L) reached an even higher value (P < 0.01). Our results suggests that pregnancy appears to have a profound inhibitory effect on plasma motilin and this may in part be responsible for the gastrointestinal hypomotility during pregnancy.