Chronic stable recording of physiologically evoked neural activity in a mixed autonomic nerve in awake, freely moving normal and experimental cystitis rats
Preclinical study demonstrates stable neural tracking of bladder pressure in awake rats, indicating feasibility for closed-loop neurogenic bladder devices.
Key Points
To determine if chronic neural recordings from a mixed autonomic nerve can reliably monitor bladder fullness in awake normal and inflamed rat models.
Implanted 12 adult male rats with a four-electrode planar array on a pelvic autonomic nerve and instrumented bladders for 2 weeks of continuous-flow cystometry.
Induced chemical cystitis in a subset of animals (n = 3) using intraperitoneal cyclophosphamide (75–100 mg/kg).
Extracted Aδ afferent neural activity during awake cystometry sessions and correlated it with continuous bladder pressure measurements.
Control rats (n = 9) demonstrated a stable correlation between integrated Aδ activity and bladder pressure at week 1 (R² = 0.55 ± 0.04) and week 2 (R² = 0.57 ± 0.04; p > 0.05).
Cyclophosphamide-induced cystitis rats maintained a consistent correlation at week 2 (R² = 0.54 ± 0.031; p > 0.05) despite elevated baseline nociceptive nerve firing.