Stress-Induced Changes in Trophic Factor Expression in the Rodent Urinary Bladder: Possible Links With Angiogenesis.

Purpose: Substantive evidence supports a role of chronic stress in the development, maintenance, and even enhancement of functional bladder disorders such as interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). Increased urinary frequency and bladder hyperalgesia have been reported in rodents exposed to a chronic stress paradigm. Here, we utilized a water avoidance stress (WAS) model in rodents to investigate the effect of chronic stress on vascular perfusion and angiogenesis.

Aging-Associated Changes in Oxidative Stress Negatively Impacts the Urinary Bladder Urothelium.

Purpose: Lower urinary tract symptoms are known to significantly increase with age, negatively impacting quality of life and self-reliance. The urothelium fulfills crucial tasks, serving as a barrier protecting the underlying bladder tissue from the harsh chemical composition of urine, and exhibits signaling properties via the release of mediators within the bladder wall that affect bladder functioning. Aging is associated with detrimental changes in cellular health, in part by increasing oxidative stress in the bladder mucosa, and more specifically the urothelium.

Acute spinal cord injury is associated with mitochondrial dysfunction in mouse urothelium.

Aim: To characterize the effects of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) on mitochondrial morphology and function in bladder urothelium and to test the therapeutic efficacy of early treatment with the mitochondrially targeted antioxidant, MitoTempo.

Methods: We used a mouse model of acute SCI by spinal cord transection between the T8-T9 vertebrae with or without MitoTempo delivery at the time of injury followed by tissue processing at 3 days after SCI. Control, SCI, and SCI-MitoTempo-treated mice were compared in all experimental conditions.

The aging bladder insights from animal models.

Alterations in bladder function with aging are very common and are very likely to represent an increasing healthcare problem in the years to come with the general aging of the population. In this review the authors describe the prevalence of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and comment upon potential mechanisms which may be responsible for the increasing prevalence of lower LUTS with increasing age, based on laboratory studies. It is clear that there is a complex interplay between the various components of the neural innervation structure of the bladder in leading to changes with age, which are likely to underpin the LUTS which are seen in the aging bladder.