Octodon degus, a new model to study the agonist and plexus-induced response in the urinary bladder

• Francisco Eduardo Martin-Cano ^[1] ; Mercedes Caso-Agundez ^[1] ; Cristina Camello-Almaraz ^[1] ; Francisco Juan Santos ^[2] ; María Teresa Espin ^[5] ; Juan Antonio Madrid ^[3] ; Adolfo Diez-Perez ^[4] ; Pedro Javier Camello ^[1] ; Maria Jose Pozo ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Extremadura

     Universidad de Extremadura

     Badajoz, España

     
  2. [2] Hospital San Pedro de Alcántara

     Hospital San Pedro de Alcántara

     Cáceres, España

     
  3. [3] Universidad de Murcia

     Universidad de Murcia

     Murcia, España

     
  4. [4] Hospital del Mar

     Hospital del Mar

     Barcelona, España

     
  5. [5] Hospital Infanta Cristina, Badajoz. Spain

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• Localización: Journal of physiology and biochemistry, ISSN-e 1877-8755, ISSN 1138-7548, Vol. 73, Nº. 1, 2017, págs. 77-87
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Urinary bladder function consists in the storage and controlled voiding of urine. Translational studies require animal models that match human characteristics, such as Octodon degus, a diurnal rodent. This study aims to characterize the contractility of the detrusor muscle and the morphology and code of the vesical plexus from O. degus. Body temperature was measured by an intra-abdominal sensor, the contractility of detrusor strips was evaluated by isometric tension recording, and the vesical plexus was studied by electrical field stimulation (EFS) and immunofluorescence. The animals showed a diurnal chronotype as judged from core temperature. The myogenic contractile response of the detrusor muscle to increasing doses of KCl reached its maximum (31.04 mN/mm2) at 60 mM. In the case of cumulative dose–response of bethanecol, the maximum response (37.42 mN/mm2) was reached at 3.2 × 10−4 M. The response to ATP was clearly smaller (3.8 mN/mm2). The pharmacological dissection of the EFS-induced contraction identified ACh and sensory fibers as the main contributors to this response. The neurons of the vesical plexus were located mainly in the trigone area, grouped in big and small ganglia. Out of them, 48.1 % of the neurons were nitrergic and 62.7 % cholinergic. Our results show functional and morphological similarities between the urinary bladder of O. degus and that of humans.