In Vivo Luminal Measurement of Distension-evoked Urothelial ATP Release in Rodents.

ATP, released from the urothelium in response to bladder distension, is thought to play a significant sensory role in the control of micturition. Therefore, accurate measurement of urothelial ATP release in a physiological setting is an important first step in studying the mechanisms that control purinergic signaling in the urinary bladder. Existing techniques to study mechanically evoked urothelial ATP release utilize cultured cells plated on flexible supports or bladder tissue pinned into Ussing chambers; however, each of these techniques does not fully emulate conditions in the intact bladder. Therefore, an experimental setup was developed to directly measure ATP concentrations in the lumen of the rodent urinary bladder. In this setup, the bladders of anesthetized rodents are perfused through catheters in both the dome of the bladder and via the external urethral orifice. Pressure in the bladder is increased by capping the urethral catheter while perfusing sterile fluid into the bladder through the dome. Measurement of intravesical pressure is achieved using a pressure transducer attached to the bladder dome catheter, akin to the setup used for cystometry. Once the desired pressure is reached, the urethral catheter's cap is removed, and fluid collected for ATP quantification by luciferin-luciferase assay. Through this experimental setup, the mechanisms controlling both mechanical and chemical stimulation of urothelial ATP release can be interrogated by including various agonists or antagonists into the perfusate or by comparing results between wildtype and genetically modified animals.