Qualitative analysis of the deposit of collagen in bladder suture of rats treated with tacrolimus combined with mycophenolate-mofetil.

Purpose: To evaluate the synthesis of type I (mature) and type III (immature) collagen in bladder suture of rats treated with a combination of tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil for 15 days.

Materials And Methods: Thirty rats were divided into 3 groups: the sham, control and experimental groups. All the animals underwent laparotomy, cystotomy and bladder suture in two planes with surgical PDS 5-0 thread. The sham group did not receive treatment. The control group received saline solution, and the experimental group received 0.1mg/kg/day of tacrolimus with 20mg/kg/day of mycophenolate mofetil, for 15 days. From then on, the tacrolimus was dosed. The surgical specimens of the bladder suture area were processed so that the total type I and type III collagen could be measured by the picrosirius red technique.

Results: There was a predominance of type I collagen production in the sham and control groups compared to the experimental group, in which type III collagen was predominant. The production of total collagen did not change.

Conclusion: The association of tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil in animals qualitatively changes the production of collagen after 15 days with a predominance of type III collagen.