Morphological changes in the fast vs slow fiber profiles of the urethras of diabetic pregnant rats

• Autor(a) principal: Marini, Gabriela [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Barbosa, Angélica M. Pascon [UNESP], Damasceno, Débora Cristina [UNESP], Matheus, Selma Maria Michelin [UNESP], Castro, Rodrigo de Aquino, Girão, Manoel João B. Castello, Rudge, Marilza Vieira Cunha [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• DOI: 10.4081/uij.2011.e9
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/uij.2011.e9; http://www.urogynaecologia.org/index.php/uij/article/view/uij.2011.e9; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/72960
• topic: Diabetes; Pregnancy; Striated muscle fiber; Urethra

Background: This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that diabetes and pregnancy detrimentally affect the normal function of urethral striated muscles in rats, providing a model for additional studies related to urinary incontinence. The aim of this study was to evaluate morphological alterations in the urethral striated muscles of diabetic pregnant rats. Materials and Methods: Twenty female Wistar rats were distributed into four experimental groups of five rats as follows: virgin, pregnant, diabetic virgin, and diabetic pregnant. Diabetes was induced using streptozotocin administration (40 mg/kg i.v.). The rats were lethally anesthetized, and the urethra and vagina were extracted as a unit. Cryostat sections (6 μm thick) were cut and stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and immunohistochemical procedures were performed and subjected to morphological and semi quantitative analysis. Results: The urethral striated muscle from the diabetic pregnant rats presented with the following variations: thinning and atrophy, disorganization and disruption associated with the colocalization of fast and slow fibers and a steady decrease in the proportion of fast vs slow fibers. Conclusion: Diabetes and pregnancy impair the urethral striated muscle and alter its fiber type distribution. © Copyright G. Marini et al., 2011.