Functional responses of different muscle types of the female rat urethra in vitro

The influence of muscle type on functional responses of the female rat urethra was investigated using morphological and functional in-vitro techniques. The urethral submucosa was found to contain longitudinally or obliquely oriented smooth muscle cells. The muscularis layer is composed of circularly oriented muscle cells. Near the bladder orifice smooth muscle fibres dominate, but in the mid-urethra the vast majority is circularly oriented striated muscle cells. Circular preparations responded to electrical field stimulation in vitro with a rapid contraction. Stimulation with single impulses resulted in a twitch response; frequencies exceeding 5-10 Hz induced a summation and tetanus. The response was unaffected by phenoxybenzamine, propranolol and scopolamine and had a low sensitivity to calcium-free solution but was sensitive to suxamethonium and tetrodotoxin. Using longer impulse trains stimulation evoked also a slow contraction, sensitive to calcium-free solution. In longitudinal preparations stimulation induced a relaxation followed by a contraction, responses much smaller than those seen in the circular preparations. Both preparations relaxed on addition of calcitonin gene-related peptide or capsaicin. The relaxation to calcitonin gene-related peptide was larger than that to capsaicin in longitudinal preparations but equally large in the circular ones. Substance P and 5-hydroxytryptamine contracted both preparations. The longitudinal urethra showed a larger contraction to 5-hydroxytryptamine than to substance P, whereas both substances induced similar responses in the circular preparations. The study shows a similar muscle arrangement in the female rat urethra as described in humans and further points to a functional differentiation between the different types of muscle.