Papers of the Week

Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome (IC/BPS) is a common chronic pelvic disorder with sensory symptoms of urinary urgency, frequency, and pain, indicating a key role for hypersensitivity of bladder-innervating sensory neurons. The inflammatory mast cell mediator histamine has long been implicated in IC/BPS, yet the direct interactions between histamine and bladder afferents remain unclear. Here we show, using a mouse bladder afferent preparation, that intravesical histamine enhanced the mechanosensitivity of sub-populations of afferents to bladder distension. Histamine also recruited 'silent afferents', which were previously unresponsive to bladder distension. Furthermore, intravesical histamine enhanced activation of dorsal horn neurons within the lumbosacral spinal cord, indicating increased afferent signaling into the central nervous system. qRT-PCR revealed significant expression of histamine receptor subtypes () in mouse lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia (DRG), bladder detrusor smooth muscle, mucosa, and isolated urothelial cells. In DRG, was the most abundantly expressed. Acute histamine exposure evoked calcium influx in select populations of DRG neurons but did not elicit calcium transients in isolated primary urothelial cells. Histamine-induced mechanical hypersensitivity was abolished in the presence of the histamine H receptor (HR) antagonist pyrilamine and was not present in preparations from mice lacking the TRPV1 receptor. Together, these results indicate that histamine enhances the sensitivity of bladder afferents to distension via interactions with HR and TRPV1. This hypersensitivity translates to increased sensory input and activation in the spinal cord, which may underlie the symptoms of bladder hypersensitivity and pain experienced in IC/BPS.