The effect of bladder outlet obstruction on alpha1- and beta-adrenoceptor expression and function
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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Nerve-sparing Mid-urethral Obstruction (NeMO) in Female Small Rodents
Published on: April 25, 2017
Maurits M Barendrecht1, Elfaridah P Frazier, Wim Vrydag
1Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Aims:
To explore possible changes in expression and/or function of alpha(1)- and beta-adrenoceptor subtypes as a cause for bladder dysfunction in a rat model of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO).
Methods:
BOO was induced in rats by partial urethral ligature. Contraction and relaxation experiments were performed with isolated bladder strips from BOO, sham-operated and non-operated (control) rats 7 days after BOO induction. mRNA expression of alpha(1)- and beta-adrenoceptor subtypes was assessed by quantitative real-time PCR.
Results:
Receptor-independent contraction or relaxation did not differ between BOO and sham rats. The alpha(1)-agonists methoxamine and A-61,603 caused only weak contraction without major differences between groups. Against KCl-induced tone, the beta-adrenoceptor agonists noradrenaline and isoprenaline caused similar relaxation in BOO and sham rats, whereas relaxation in response to the beta(3)-selective BRL 37,344 was attenuated. Against passive tension, noradrenaline induced relaxation in sham and control rats; in contrast, noradrenaline induced contraction at low concentrations and relaxation at high concentrations in BOO rats. The contraction component was abolished by the alpha(1)-antagonist prazosin. The mRNA expression of alpha(1D)-adrenoceptors was increased in BOO, whereas none of the other receptor mRNAs were up-regulated.
Conclusions:
In a rat BOO model, weak contraction responses to alpha(1)-agonists and relaxation responses to beta-agonists are not altered to a major extent. Nevertheless, relaxation responses to the endogenous agonist noradrenaline are turned into alpha(1)-adrenoceptor-mediated contraction responses in BOO, possibly due to an up-regulation of alpha(1D)-adrenoceptors.
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