A corticotropin-releasing factor receptor antagonist improves urodynamic dysfunction produced by social stress or partial bladder outlet obstruction in male rats.

Barrington's nucleus, in the pons, regulates micturition through spinal projections to preganglionic parasympathetic neurons. The stress neuropeptide CRF is prominent in these projections and has an inhibitory influence. Social stress in rats causes urinary retention and abnormal urodynamics resembling those produced by partial bladder outlet obstruction (pBOO), and this is associated with CRF upregulation in Barrington's nucleus. Here, we examined the role of CRF in social stress- and pBOO-induced urodynamic dysfunction by assessing the ability of a CRF₁ receptor antagonist to alter these effects. Male rats exposed to repeated resident-intruder stress were administered vehicle or a CRF₁ antagonist (NBI-30775) daily prior to the stress. Urodynamic function was recorded in the unanesthetized state 72 h after the final stress. NBI-30775 prevented the increased intermicturition interval, micturition volume, and bladder capacity produced by social stress, but not the increase in CRF expression in Barrington's nucleus neurons. The urinary dysfunction was also partly prevented by shRNA targeting of CRF in Barrington's nucleus, suggesting that stress-induced urinary dysfunction results, in part, from CRF upregulation in Barrington's nucleus and enhanced postsynaptic effects in the spinal cord. Finally, NBI-30775 improved urodynamic function of rats that had pBOO of 2-wk duration when administered daily during the second week but did not block the increase in CRF expression in Barrington's nucleus neurons. These findings implicate a role for Barrington's nucleus CRF in stress- and pBOO-induced urodynamic changes and suggest that CRF₁ antagonists may be useful therapeutic agents for the treatment of urinary dysfunction.