The Study Of Electrophysiological Characteristics Of Isolated Vas Deferens Smooth Muscle Cell In The Rat

Male infertility was a complicated disease due to multiple reasons, including dysfunctions of procreation tracts. Take structural and functional deficiency of vas deferens for instance, several procedures of sperm maturation, storage before ejaculation, and accomplish of ejaculation will be induced. There have been piles of reports about neurological and morphological characters in rat vas deferens smooth muscle, however, there is little work about combined research with electrophysiological and morphological aspects. Our research had focused on the relationship of physiological characteristics and the arrangement of smooth muscular layers, by intracellular microelectrode recording and microelectrophoresis fluorescence location techniques on acutely isolated vas deferens smooth muscle cell (SMC). We had also applied acetycholine or high extracellular potassium to further investigate those effects on SMCs and the underlying mechanisms, in order to supply for a new theory and practice evidence of clinical male procreation system diseases (include male infertility etc.) of occurance , development and treatment.1. Histological research on isolated vas deferens in ratsAfter application of hematoxylin-eosin yellowish (HE) dye technique on paraffine slice, we observed histological characters of differnent segments on both sides of isolated vas deferens in rats. The results showed Wistar rats vas deferens composed of epithelium, lamina propria, muscular layer, and adventitia. The smooth muscular layers have two different arrangment of cells, outer thin lognitudinal muscular layer and inner thick circular muscular layer. Statistically, there was no significant difference among those histological results of different segments on both sides (P > 0.05, n = 42).2. The electrophysiological characteristics of isolated vas deferens smooth muscle cells in ratsWith the microelectrode technique intracellular recordings were taken from the rat isolated vas deferens SMCs, the results showed that the passively electrophysiological characteristics of SMC,such as the resting potential (RP) ,input resistance .Based on the electrophysiological technique ,we made recorded cells morphological location with microelectrophoresis method , and analyzed the electrophysiological characteristics of different smooth muscular layers cells of the same apparatus .The membrane electrical parameters were measured as follows : RP - 48.56±0.46 mV (n = 1141) ,input resistance 1638.70±205.20 M Ω (n = 45) .Impaled with microeletrodes containing the fluorescent dye 0.1% propidium iodide, 37 and 17 sampled cells were indentified as smooth muscle cells of outer longitudinal muscular layer and inner circular muscular layer. The membrane electrical parameters were respectively measured as follows : RP -53.56±3.88 mV (n = 37), input resistance 2245.60±372.50 MΩ (n = 13); RP - 51.62±4.27 mV( n = 17), input resistance 2101.50±513.50 MΩ (n= 10) . These results suggest that the electrophysiological characteristics were not significantly different between SMCs of longitudinal and circular muscular layers in the rat isolated vas deferens.