Contractile responses in bladder body, bladder neck and prostate from rat, guinea pig and cat

Lower urinary tract smooth muscle displays marked heterogeneity in pharmacologic responsiveness to contractile agents. The present study details differences among species with regard to muscarinic, adrenergic, histaminergic and serotonergic agonists in the bladder body, bladder neck and prostate from guinea pig, rat and cat. Under in vitro conditions, all smooth muscle preparations contracted to potassium chloride. The muscarinic agonist, carbamylcholine, produced maximal contraction, whereas alpha receptor agonists exerted only minimal, if any, effect in bladder body preparations from all three species. In contrast, alpha receptor-mediated responses predominated relative to muscarinic responses in bladder neck preparations from all three species. Prostatic contractility was examined in tissue from guinea pig and rat and contraction occurred to both alpha and muscarinic receptor agonists. Contractile response to norepinephrine in bladder neck and prostate was potentiated by neuronal uptake inhibition but not by beta receptor blockade. Serotonin and histamine exhibited more diverse effects among species and tissues. In general, histamine contracted all three tissues from guinea pig with minimal contraction occurring in tissues from rat or cat. On the other hand, serotonin markedly contracted the cat bladder body and rat prostate, but exerted no effect on tissues from the guinea pig. These data reinforce and detail the heterogeneity of pharmacologic contractile responses in lower urinary tract smooth muscle. Furthermore, the studies document the relative similarity among species in cholinergic and adrenergic responsiveness and the dissimilarity among species in serotonergic and histaminergic responsiveness of lower urinary tract smooth muscle.