Insight and Resources From a Study of the “Impact of Sex, Androgens, and Prostate Size on C57BL/6J Mouse Urinary Physiology

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium report is to summarize information from a session 3 oral presentation at the Society of Toxicologic Pathology Annual Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mice are genetically tractable and are likely to play an important role in elucidating environmental, genetic, and aging-related mechanisms of urinary dysfunction in men. We and others have made significant strides in developing quantitative methods for assessing mouse urinary function and our collaborators recently showed that aging male mice, like men, develop urinary dysfunction. Yet, it remains unclear how mouse prostate anatomy and histology relate to urinary function. The purpose of this report is to share foundational resources for evaluating mouse prostate histology and urinary physiology from our recent publication “Impact of Sex, Androgens, and Prostate Size on C57BL/6J Mouse Urinary Physiology: Functional Assessment.” We will begin with a review of prostatic embryology in men and mice, then move to comparative histology resources, and conclude with quantitative measures of rodent urinary physiology.

Impact of sex, androgens, and prostate size on C57BL/6J mouse urinary physiology: urethral histology

“…Our characterizations of the urethra in this study (0.5-2 mm from the bladder neck) provide valuable insights into urethral structure in male and female mice, adding to previous evaluations focusing solely on male prostate and prostatic urethra (8,17,18). Previous studies that compared male and female urinary physiology in mice have favored functional end points, did not include histological end points, and only reported total body mass and bladder wet weights as anatomic end points (3,4,19).…”