Estrogen replacement avoids the decrease of bladder innervations in ovariectomized adult virgin rats: in vivo stereological study.
OBJECTIVE
The authors quantified the nerve fibers in the bladder wall of ovariectomized rats with and without estradiol replacement.


METHODS
This study was conducted on 40 Wistar rats (3 months old). Group 1: remained intact; Group 2: underwent bilateral ovariectomy, and after 30 days was started on subcutaneous sesame oil replacement (0.2 ml per day) for 90 days; Group 3: sham-operated, and after 30 days was started on subcutaneous sesame oil replacement (0.2 ml per day) for 90 days; Group 4: bilateral ovariectomy, and after 30 days was started on subcutaneous injection of 17β-estradiol (10 μg/kg body weight) for 90 days. S-100 was used to stain nerves myelinized fibers on paraffin rat bladder sections. The G-50 grid system was used to quantitatively analyze the fibers.


CONCLUSIONS
Long-term estrogen deprivation caused significant changes in bladder innervations, which can be characterized by a decreased number of nerve fibers by 65% (p < 0.001).
de Fraga
Rogerio
R
Universidade Federal do Paraná, Rua Bruno Filgueira 2211, AP 1301 CEP 80730-380 Curitiba, PR, Brazil. ogeriodefraga@uol.com.br
Palma
Paulo
P
Dambros
Miriam
M
Riccetto
Cassio L Z
CL
Mandarim-de-Lacerda
Carlos
C
Miyaoka
Ricardo
R
D000818:Animals; D003714:Denervation; D004958:Estradiol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D004967:Estrogens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000187:drug effects*; D010052:Ovariectomy; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000294:innervation*
D004967:Estrogens; D004958:Estradiol