News in Physiological Sciences, Vol 1, 61-65, Copyright © 1986 by International Union of Physiological Sciences

ARTICLES

The Mammalian Urinary Bladder: It's More Than Accommodating

Sk Lewis

Once tacitly assumed to be an inert sac, as evidenced by the lack of information in physiology textbooks, the mammalian urinary bladder epithelium is instead a dynamic system. We stress the structure-function relationship, which allows the bladder epithelium to accomodate large fluctuations in urine volume by orderly insertion and withdrawal of cytoplasmic vesicles. This process, coupled to a recently described hormonally regulated transport system, allows the bladder to maintain urine ionic composition nearly constant. In addition, studies on the bladder have revealed a novel regulatory system of ion transport involving channel degradation and turnover.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. C. Y. Wang, J.-M. Lee, J. P. Johnson, T. R. Kleyman, R. Bridges, and G. Apodaca Hydrostatic pressure-regulated ion transport in bladder uroepithelium Am J Physiol Renal Physiol, October 1, 2003; 285(4): F651 - F663. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. A. Lewis Everything you wanted to know about the bladder epithelium but were afraid to ask Am J Physiol Renal Physiol, June 1, 2000; 278(6): F867 - F874. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]