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Updated: May 22, 2026

Bladder Smooth Muscle Strip Contractility as a Method to Evaluate Lower Urinary Tract Pharmacology
Published on: August 18, 2014
Relaxant effects of Aike Mixture on isolated bladder and prostatic urethral smooth muscle of rabbits
Min-jian Zhang1, Ya-lei Shi, Wan-jun Cheng
1People's Hospital Affiliated to Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, 350004, China, zmj83@tom.com.
Objective:
To observe the relaxant effect of Aike Mixture (AKM) on isolated bladder and prostatic urethral smooth muscle of rabbits.
Methods:
The isolated bladder and prostatic urethral smooth muscle from male rabbits were placed in a Magnus bath and smooth muscle contraction was measured using a biological signal acquisition and analysis system. The effects of AKM in combination with methoxyamine, carbachol and CaCl2 on the contractile tension of muscle strips were determined by cumulative dosing.
Results:
AKM dose-dependently reduced contractile tension of bladder trigone smooth muscle (r=0.831, P<0.05), reduced contractile wave amplitude (r=0.837, P<0.05) and decreased contractile frequency (r=-0.917, P<0.01). AKM significantly inhibited the increases in smooth muscle contraction induced by methoxyamine, carbachol and CaCl2.
Conclusion:
AKM dose-dependently inhibited the contraction of rabbit isolated bladder and prostatic urethral smooth muscle by antagonizing α1-adrenergic receptors and M-cholinergic receptors.
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