Responses of acrylamide-treated rat bladders.

Acrylamide (ACR) is a chemical used in many industries around the world and more recently was found to be formed naturally in foods cooked at high temperatures. ACR was shown to be a neurotoxicant, reproductive toxicant, and carcinogen in animal species. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the influence of ACR treatment on urinary bladder responses to carbachol (10-9-3x10-4 M) and potassium chloride (KCl; 5-100 mM), each of them causes receptor-dependent and receptor-independent contractions, respectively. We also examined the role of gender in these responses. Rats of both genders were divided into three groups as follows: (1) Control animals (2) ACR-I; ACR-treated (2 mg/kg-d for 90 days) (3) ACR-II; ACR-treated (5 mg/kg-d for 90 days). In rats treated with ACR, the EC50 values of carbachol and KCl, but not the maximal response, to both agents were significantly higher than in control group. Histopathological parameters such as edema, congestion, inflammatory cells, microvascular proliferation, fibrosis, eosinophils, mast cells and epithelial damage were all higher in the ACR-treated group than in the controls. These results demonstrate for the first time that ACR-treatment can induce urinary bladder injury (Tab. 4, Fig. 4, Ref. 30).