Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of urinary bladder inflammation on bladder function in a rat chemical cystitis model. We also histologically confirmed the effects of inflammation in the detrusor on chronically inflamed bladder in rats.
Materials and methods: A total of 13 female Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. In seven rats, intravesical instillation of HCl induced chemical cystitis, and the other rats with intravesical instillation of saline were used as the sham. After 2 weeks, cystometrograms were obtained with additional intraabdominal pressure measurements in all unanesthetized, unrestrained rats in metabolic cages. The rats were killed just after cystometry. The bladders were removed and examined histologically for mast cells and inflammatory changes.
Results: The rats with acute injury by HCl showed no differences in pressure parameters, including basal pressure, threshold pressure, and maximum bladder pressure, compared with the sham rats. They showed significantly increased bladder capacity, micturition volume, residual volume, and micturition interval compared with the sham group. They also showed an increased frequency of detrusor overactivity compared with the sham group. The percent of detrusor overactivity was 56.3% among the total intravesical pressure rises above 2 cmH(2)O. The histological findings of the rats with acute injury by HCl were consistent with chemical cystitis.
Conclusions: Overlapping patterns of lower urinary tract symptoms and pelvic pain are common disease characteristics among interstitial cystitis patients. The situation in an animal model of interstitial cystitis is similar, as observed in this study by the histologic and awake cystometric examinations. However, the interstitial cystitis model showed detrusor overactivity during the filling phase without a decrease in bladder capacity and micturition intervals, which differs from the characteristics of overactive bladder patients.
Keywords: Cystitis, interstitial; Cystometry; Rat; Urinary bladder.