Involvement of central GABA receptors in the regulation of the urinary bladder function of anaesthetized rats.

Cystometric recordings were performed in pentobarbitone anaesthetized rats and the effects of gammaaminobutyric acid (GABA) mechanisms on urinary bladder function were evaluated as their influence on a bladder hyperactivity induced by 1-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA) after peripheral decarboxylase inhibition. The bladder response was inhibited by intracerebroventricular (i.c.v., 4th ventricle) injections of GABA (250 microgram), muscimol (0.2 microgram) and glycine (1,000 microgram) as well as by systemically administered muscimol (4 mg/kg) and diazepam (2 mg/kg). Intravenous (i.v.) bicuculline, but not i.v. strychnine, antagonized the inhibitory actions of intraperitoneal (i.p.) and i.c.v. muscimol and i.v. diazepam while the opposite was true for the inhibitory action of i.c.v. glycine. In rats not pretreated with L-DOPA, i.p. administration of bicuculline (4 mg/kg) after 15 min caused prominent detrusor contractions that were prevented by an infracollicular brain transection. It is suggested that GABA synapses in the pontinemesencephalic brain region may be involved in the modulation of urinary bladder function.