Effect of chronic ischemia on glucose metabolism of rabbit urinary bladder

The effect of chronic ischemia on glucose metabolism of the rabbit urinary bladder was studied. Unilateral ischemia was produced by ligation of one of the two vesical arteries which supply the rabbit bladder. Two weeks after the operation, the in vitro glucose metabolism of normal bladder tissue was compared to the glucose metabolism of tissue isolated from both the ischemic side and contralateral (non-ischemic) side of the ischemic bladder. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) ischemic and contralateral side bladder tissues contained less glycogen than normal; 2) glucose utilization was higher in the ischemic and contralateral side tissues; 3) ischemic and contralateral side tissues incorporated more glucose into lactate and produced more total lactate than normal tissues; 4) whereas contralateral side tissue produced more 14CO2 than ischemic side tissue, the ability of normal bladder tissue to form 14CO2 is significantly higher than both ischemic and contralateral side tissues; 5) the degree of reduced CO2 production correlated well with previous studies on the contractile response of smooth muscle strips isolated from the ischemic and contralateral sides, and the reduced functional ability of the in vitro whole bladder to empty; 6) histologically, smooth muscle degeneration and necrosis is only present on the ischemic side of the bladder although the contralateral side shows signs of generalized degeneration and edema. In general, we conclude that although only the ischemic tissue demonstrated major smooth muscle degeneration and necrosis, unilateral ischemia resulted in marked alterations in glucose metabolism on both the ischemic and contralateral sides.