A role for peripheral 5-HT2 receptors in serotonin-induced facilitation of the expulsion phase of ejaculation in male rats.

Introduction: The urethrogenital reflex (UGR) is used as a physiological animal model of the autonomic and somatic activity that accompanies ejaculatory-like reflexes (ELRs). Serotonin (5-HT) plays an important role in regulating ejaculation.

Aim: To examine the effects of intraurethral 5-HT on ELRs and to examine the effects of various 5-HT receptor subtypes on the 5-HT-induced changes in the ELRs.

Characterization of bulbospongiosus muscle reflexes activated by urethral distension in male rats.

The urethrogenital reflex (UGR) is used as a surrogate model of the autonomic and somatic nerve and muscle activity that accompanies ejaculation. The UGR is evoked by distension of the urethra and activation of penile afferents. The current study compares two methods of elevating urethral intraluminal pressure in spinalized, anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 60).

Characterization of a spinal, urine storage reflex, inhibitory center and its regulation by 5-HT1A receptors in female cats.

Urine storage is facilitated by somatic (pudendal nerve) and sympathetic [hypogastric nerve (HgN)] reflexes to the urethral rhabdosphincter (URS) and urethral smooth muscle, respectively, initiated by primary afferent fibers in the pelvic nerve (PelN). Inhibition of storage reflexes is required for normal voiding. This study characterizes a urine storage reflex inhibitory network that can be activated by PelN afferent fibers concurrently with the reflexes themselves.

Effects of streptozotocin-induced diabetes on bladder and erectile (dys)function in the same rat in vivo.

Objective: To establish the methods, feasibility and utility of evaluating the impact of diabetes on bladder and erectile function in the same rat, as more than half of diabetic patients have bladder dysfunction, and half of diabetic men have erectile dysfunction, but the severity of coincident disease has not been rigorously assessed.

Materials And Methods: In all, 16 F-344 rats had diabetes induced by streptozotocin (STZ), and were divided into insulin-treated (five) and untreated (11), and compared with age-matched controls (10), all assessed in parallel. All STZ rats were diabetic for 8-11 weeks.

New pharmacological treatments for urinary incontinence and overactive bladder.

Lower urinary tract dysfunction encompasses a number of different pathologies, and affects the lives of millions of patients worldwide. Although several pharmaceutical companies have been involved in urological drug discovery over the last several years, therapeutic options remain limited. The mainstay of treatment for overactive bladder and urinary incontinence for several years has been antimuscarinic agents.

Intercellular communication and bladder function.

There is now considerable experimental and clinical evidence supporting the supposition that overactivity of the bladder is associated with detectable alterations in the electrical properties of the detrusor smooth muscle cells. The preliminary data described in this report indicates that intercellular communication through gap junctions might play an important role in this process. Moreover, alterations in Cx43 mRNA expression may represent a tissue response to a physiologic insult (i.

Inhibitors of gap junctions attenuate myogenic tone in cerebral arteries.

The effects of two structurally distinct inhibitors of gap junction communication were studied by using three different forms of vasoconstriction in pressurized rat middle cerebral arteries. The sensitivity of myogenic tone (at 60 mmHg), vasopressin-induced tone (10 nM, at 20 mmHg), and depolarizing solution-induced tone (80 mM K(+), at 20 mmHg) to inhibition by heptanol (1.0 microM to 3.