Comparative response of rabbit bladder smooth muscle and mucosa to anoxia

Recent studies indicate that the mucosa of the urinary bladder plays a major role in the maintenance of normal bladder function. Previous studies have demonstrated that rabbit bladder mucosa has higher rates of basal glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation than that of bladder smooth muscle. The current study compares the response of rabbit bladder mucosa and smooth muscle compartments to anoxia. The results demonstrate that the rate of high energy phosphate degradation of the mucosa is significantly greater than the rate of high energy phosphate degradation of the smooth muscle. The implication is that the mucosa would be significantly more sensitive to ischemia than the smooth muscle of the bladder. This hypothesis may be extremely relevant to conditions such as interstitial cystitis and recurrent urinary bladder infections, in which ischemia has been implicated in their etiology.