Evaluation of oxidative stress in bladder in urethral injuries: an experimental model in rats

Background: The aim of this study is to determine the changes of some oxidative stress parameters following an experimental urethral injury.

Materials and Methods: 24 Wistar-Albino male rats were used and 18 of them were exposed to urethral injury. Total oxidant status (TOS) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) values in bladder and penile tissues and sera of rats during creation and healing stages of injury (control, day-1, 7 and 21) were examined and evaluated histopathologically.

Results: TOS levels in both tissue and serum groups increased nearly 4x fold in first day following injury. On the seventh day, TOS levels of bladder and penile tissue showed a nearly 50% decrease according to first day (p=0.005; p=0.025, respectively). At the end of third week, while bladder TOS levels decreased to control values, penile tissue TOS levels remained at high levels. The bladder TAC values mildly increased in first day (p=0.026) and then returned to normal levels in seventh day and continued to decrease down by half of control levels at the end of third week (p=0.005). TAC levels of penile tissue increased twofold in first day (p=0.021) and remained at same high levels for three weeks.

Conclusion: We observed that first day after traumatic urethral injury seems to be very important for evaluation of traumatic injuries and wound healing. We believe when an urethral injury was occured, both urethra and bladder should be handled with care and without delay during urethral healing, because of the presence of oxidative changes in bladder.