title: Functional and molecular changes of the bladder in rats with crushing injury of nerve bundles from major pelvic ganglion to the bladder: role of RhoA/Rho kinase pathway.
abstract: Voiding dysfunction is a common complication after radical pelvic surgery. To reduce this complication, nerve-sparing radical pelvic surgery was introduced. However, several patients experienced voiding difficulty despite nerve-sparing radical pelvic surgery. Thus, we investigated the functional and molecular changes of the bladder in rats, which demonstrated voiding dysfunction induced by nerve damage during nerve-sparing radical pelvic surgery. Male rats were used and assigned to normal, sham-operated, and bilateral crushing nerve bundles from major pelvic ganglion (MPG) to bladder group. After one, two, and four-week crushing injury, significantly decreased contractile response and increased connective tissue of the detrusor were observed and these results were reliable findings with voiding difficulty following nerve-sparing radical pelvic surgery. After crushing injury, significantly increased M2 muscarinic receptor expression was observed and this might be regarded as the compensatory response. However, M3 muscarinic receptor expression was not significantly changed. The expression of RhoA, ROCK-α, and ROCK-β was significantly increased after one, two, and four-week crushing injury. From these results, the down-regulation of RhoA/Rho kinase pathway might lead to the decreased bladder contractility after crushing injury of nerve bundles from MPG to the bladder despite of the compensated up-regulation of M2 muscarinic receptor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea. hygeia@catholic.ac.kr
authors.forename: Su Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Dong Sup
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Woong Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Seol
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung Hoo
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Ji Youl
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Tae-Kon
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Sae Woong
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005725:Ganglia, Autonomic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009409:Nerve Crush; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D043587:Receptor, Muscarinic M3 / Q000378:metabolism; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D054460:rho-Associated Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D043587:Receptor, Muscarinic M3; D054460:rho-Associated Kinases