Description
The cervix is a vital component of pregnancy: it provides a protective barrier for the pregnancy during the antepartum period and its drastic remodeling as pregnancy progresses facilitates parturition. There is a wealth of research that studies cervical remodeling during late pregnancy and labor, but few studies that investigate the cervix during the earliest weeks of gestation. This study focuses on biochemical changes that occur between the time just prior to conception and 6-8 weeks gestation by enrolling patients undergoing intrauterine insemination as part of fertility treatment. In vivo Raman spectroscopy was utilized as a nondestructive tool to identify early biochemical changes within the cervix. The study found that early cervical remodeling included (1) increased vascularity, (2) decreased structural protein, and (3) decreased trivalent collagen cross-linking. This is the first study demonstrating the feasibility of using in vivo Raman spectroscopy to measure biochemical changes upon the transition to early pregnancy and indicates cervical remodeling begins in the very early stages of pregnancy. The datasets include detailed fingerprint and high-wavenumber Raman spectral values obtained from cervical measurements prior to conception at the time of intrauterine insemination, and early pregnancy time points. Additionally, the dataset includes pure spectral values from main biochemical contributors to the fingerprint and high wavenumber Raman spectra, including actin, blood, cholesterol, collagen, glycogen, and water.