Effect of ethanol on the response of the rat urinary bladder to in vitro ischemia: protective effect of alpha-lipoic acid.

Purpose: Ethanol exposure has been used to demonstrate the increase of oxidative stress to a variety of tissues. We studied the effect of ethanol on the response of isolated strips of rat bladder to in vitro hypoxia in the absence of glucose (in vitro ischemia). Secondly, we determined if alpha-lipoic acid (LA) could alter the response to ethanol + in vitro ischemia.