This investigation examined the effect of footshock on responses of 283 spinal dorsal horn neurons (DHNs) to urinary bladder distension (UBD). Female rats were treated with seven daily sessions of footshock (chronic footshock, CFS), six accommodation sessions followed by one exposure to footshock (acute footshock, AFS), or handled similarly without receiving any footshock (no footshock, NFS). After the final footshock or NFS session, rats were anesthetized, a laminectomy performed and extracellular single-unit recordings of L6-S1 DHNs obtained in intact or spinalized preparations. Neurons were classified as Type I - inhibited by heterotopic noxious conditioning stimuli (HNCS) or as Type II - not inhibited by HNCS - and characterized for spontaneous activity and for neuronal discharges evoked by graded UBD. A differential effect of footshock-induced stress was noted on neuronal subgroups. In intact preparations, Type I neurons were less responsive to UBD after either chronic or acute stress, while Type II neurons demonstrated significantly augmented responses to UBD. This enhanced neuronal responsiveness to UBD was present in spinalized preparations following exposure to CFS but not AFS. Type I neurons were still less responsive to stress in spinalized preparations following CFS and AFS. This study provides further evidence that (1) at least two populations of spinal neurons exist which encode for visceral stimuli and are likely to have distinct roles in visceral nociception, and that (2) the chronic stress-induced enhancement of DHN responses to UBD involves changes in at the spinal level while the acute stress effects are dependent on a supraspinal substrate.

Neonatal bladder inflammation has been demonstrated to produce hypersensitivity to bladder re-inflammation as an adult. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of neonatal urinary bladder inflammation on adult bladder function and structure. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were treated on postnatal days 14-16 with intravesical zymosan or anesthesia alone. At 12-16 weeks of age, micturition frequency and cystometrograms were measured. Similarly treated rats had their bladders removed for measurement of plasma extravasation following intravesical mustard oil, for neuropeptide analysis (CGRP or SubP), or for detailed histological examination. Rats treated with zymosan as neonates exhibited increased micturition frequency, reduced micturition volume thresholds, greater extravasation of Evan's Blue following intravesical mustard oil administration, and greater total bladder content of CGRP and SubP. In contrast, there were no quantitative histological changes in the thickness, fibrosis or mast cells of bladder tissue due to neonatal zymosan treatments. Functional changes in urologic systems observed in adulthood, coupled with the increased neuropeptide content and neurogenic plasma extravasation in adult bladders, suggest that the neonatal bladder inflammation treatment enhanced the number, function and/or neurochemical content of primary afferent neurons. These data support the hypothesis that insults to the urologic system in infancy may contribute to the development of adult bladder hypersensitivity.

Perspective

Inflammation of the bladder early in life in the rat has multiple sequelae including laboratory measures that suggest an alteration of the neurophysiological substrates related to the bladder. Some painful bladder syndromes in humans have similar characteristics and so may be due to similar mechanisms.

The present studies examined the involvement of the rostral ventral medulla (RVM) in modulating the visceromotor response (VMR) evoked by urinary bladder distension (UBD) in adult female rats. The VMR was indexed by electromyographic (EMG) responses of the abdominal external oblique muscle to UBD. Experiment 1 showed that the predominant effect of electrical stimulation of the RVM in normal rats was to produce intensity-dependent inhibition of the VMR (54% of sites sampled). Facilitatory, biphasic, or no effects were obtained at the remaining sites. Experiment 2 showed that RVM-induced inhibition of the VMR was significantly attenuated by intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of naloxone, but not saline vehicle. In Experiment 3, we examined the effect of lesions of the RVM in rats with inflamed bladders since previous research has shown that an endogenous opioid inhibitory system is engaged by bladder inflammation. Electrolytic lesions of the RVM, but not sham-lesions of the RVM, significantly increased the VMR to graded UBD in rats with augmented VMRs induced by prior inflammation of the bladder. The present data suggest that the RVM can inhibit the VMR to UBD acting in part via an opioid inhibitory system and that bladder inflammation can recruit the RVM to produce a net inhibitory effect on the VMR to UBD.