Study confirms that the bladder lining matters when it comes to IC
Story originally posted on December 12, 2005
A study was recently published this past August (2005) which looked at how important the a role the bladder lining plays in Interstitial Cystitis. It is worth noting that this study was conducted on rats, not on humans though.
In this study the researchers tested the affects of the common Interstitial Cystitis drugs “Detrol” (tolterodine) and Ditropan (oxybutynin) on the muscarinic receptors of the bladder. These receptors are the areas of the body where these two medications are designed to go to. They tested these drugs on both healthy and inflamed bladder tissue, and found that the irritated bladder had forty times the number of receptors. Making them more likely to respond to treatments which are in fact aimed at helping this area of the bladder.
During their research the scientists found that important chemical processes take place under the bladder lining and inside of it. With the use of these two drugs they determined that the muscular under layer of the bladder was less affected than the actual bladder lining itself. The researchers concluded that they study adds weight to the fact that the bladder lining plays a distinct role in urinary conditions such as Interstitial Cystitis.
This is indeed an important point, as many drugs such as Elmiron and DHMO (neither of these drugs were looked at in this study) are designed specifically to try and help coat the damaged (and inflamed) bladder lining. They aim to allow the bladder a chance to try and heal itself while the internal lining is somewhat protected from anything that enters the interior of the bladder. With no distinct cause of IC being known at this time, the more we can learn about how the IC bladders function and react to certain medications, the better the chance we have at eventually finding out the cause (or causes) behind this baffling condition.
Information resources:
Giglio D, Ryberg AT, To K, Delbro DS, Tobin G. Altered muscarinic receptor subtype expression and functional responses in cyclophosphamide induced cystitis in rats. Auton Neurosci. 2005 Aug 24;