Contractions of the non-pregnant uterus play a key role in fertility. Yet, the electrophysiology underlying these contractions is poorly understood. In this paper, we investigate the presence of uterine electrical activity and characterize its propagation in unstimulated ex vivo human uteri. Multichannel electrohysterographic measurements were performed in five freshly resected human uteri starting immediately after hysterectomy. Using an electrode grid externally and an electrode array internally, measurements were performed up to 24 h after hysterectomy and compared with control. Up to 2 h after hysterectomy, we measured biopotentials in all included uteri. The median root mean squared (RMS) values of the external measurements ranged between 3.95 μV (interquartile range (IQR) 2.41–14.18 μV) and 39.4 μV (interquartile range (IQR) 10.84–105.64 μV) and were all significantly higher than control (median RMS of 1.69 μV, IQR 1.13–3.11 μV), consisting of chicken breast meat. The RMS values decreased significantly over time. After 24 h, the median RMS (1.27 μV, IQR 0.86–3.04 μV) was comparable with the control (1.69 μV, IQR 1.13–3.11 μV, p = 0.125). The internal measurements showed a comparable pattern over time, but overall lower amplitude. The measured biopotentials propagated over the uterine surface, following both a plane-wave as well as an erratic pattern. No clear pacemaker location nor a preferred propagation direction could be identified. These results show that ex vivo uteri can spontaneously generate propagating biopotentials and provide novel insight contributing to improving our understanding of the electrophysiology of the human non-pregnant uterus.

非妊娠子宫的收缩在生育能力中起关键作用。然而，对这些收缩的电生理学知之甚少。在本文中，我们调查子宫电活动的存在，并表征其在未经刺激的离体人子宫中的传播。子宫切除术后立即开始在五个刚切除的人子宫中进行多通道电子宫测量。在子宫切除术后24小时内使用外部电极栅和内部电极阵列进行测量，并与对照进行比较。子宫切除术后长达2小时，我们测量了所有子宫的生物电势。外部测量的均方根均方根（RMS）值介于3.95μV（四分位间距（IQR）2.41–14.18μV）和39.4μV（四分位间距（IQR）10.84–105）之间。64μV），均显着高于由鸡胸肉组成的对照（RMS中位数为1.69μV，IQR为1.13–3.11μV）。RMS值随时间显着下降。24小时后，中值RMS（1.27μV，IQR 0.86-3.04μV）与对照（1.69μV，IQR 1.13–3.11μV，p  = 0.125）。内部测量结果显示，随时间变化的模式类似，但总体幅度较低。所测得的生物电势沿平面波和不稳定模式在子宫表面上传播。找不到清晰的起搏器位置或首选的传播方向。这些结果表明离体子宫可以自发产生繁殖的生物电势，并提供新颖的见解，有助于增进我们对人类非怀孕子宫电生理的理解。