Acrylamide-induced visceral neuropathy: evidence for the involvement of capsaicin-sensitive nerves of the rat urinary bladder.

The mechanisms underlying the severe urinary retention induced by acrylamide intoxication were studied in detail in the rat. Subcutaneous treatment with acrylamide monomer (50 mg/kg daily for 10 days) almost completely impaired the micturition reflex, resulting in urinary retention. In fact, the ability to eliminate an oral water load was virtually abolished, while bladder filling with saline (transvesical cystometrogram) failed to activate reflex micturition. Instead, a picture of overflow incontinence resulted in urethane-anaesthetized rats, which was not reversed by intravenous administration of 4-aminopyridine. The nerve-mediated contractile response to field stimulation (0.1-20 Hz, 0.5 ms, 60 V) of the isolated bladder was unaffected, thus suggesting the integrity of bladder efferent innervation, and no evidence was found from in vitro experiments that the myogenic contractility of the bladder was depressed by acrylamide treatment. Conversely, the sensory nerve-mediated response to capsaicin was abolished and sensory nerve fibres of the bladder were selectively depleted of their content of substance P- and calcitonin gene-related peptide immunoreactivity following acrylamide treatment. In fact, concentrations of the same neuropeptides in other organs, including the adjoining ureters, were unaffected. As to the urethral segment, including the striated sphincter, the D-tubocurarine (0.2 mM)-sensitive urethral response to electrical stimulation (0.1 Hz, 0.1 ms, 20 V) was significantly reduced in acrylamide-treated animals. At the same level, neurofilament protein immunostaining revealed striking accumulations of neurofilament protein-like material in motor end-plates, thus indicating that neuromuscular junctions of the urethral striated sphincter were severely affected. Thus, the afferent arm of the micturition reflex was shown to be severely deranged by acrylamide intoxication, especially in its capsaicin-sensitive component. Since twitch-like contractions of the urethral striated sphincter are probably involved in promoting bladder voiding, a decreased efficiency of this mechanism could participate in the picture of urinary retention induced by acrylamide.