Effects of testosterone on neuromuscular transmission in rat isolated urinary bladder

Testosterone was examined for its effects on neuromuscular transmission in rat and shrew urinary bladder. In isolated preparations of detrusor muscle from sexually immature male rats (8-10 weeks old) at concentrations of 100-300 muM, it inhibited neuromuscular transmission in a concentration-dependent manner and it also inhibited responses to applied carbachol and diadenosine pentaphosphate (APSA, a P2X receptor agonist). Ethanol (at or above 38 mM), the solvent for testosterone, also caused significant inhibition of neurogenic contractions as well as carbachol- and Ap(5)A-induced contractions. In older, sexually mature male rats (over 16 weeks old), testosterone and ethanol had similar effects to those observed in the young male rat, although both were slightly less potent. In young virgin female rats (8-12 weeks old), testosterone and ethanol inhibited neuromuscular transmission; testosterone was approximately 1000 times more potent than in male rats, with a threshold concentration of 30 nM. In the insectivore, Suncus murinus, testosterone (0.1 muM-1 mM) caused inhibition of neurogenic and chemogenic responses, but ethanol had no significant effect. Flutamide (50 muM), a genomic testosterone-receptor antagonist, did not inhibit any of the responses to testosterone. It is concluded that testosterone acts predominantly on a postjunctional nongenomic receptor to inhibit urinary bladder detrusor muscle contraction. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.