Cystolithiasis in Rats as Influenced by Hyaluronidase, Sex, and Stress

Abstract

Stone formation in male and female Wistar rats was initiated by implantation of fragments of known weight and composition of human stone and the effects of sex, hyaluronidase, and stress on cystolithiasis were studied. Sex was demonstrated to be a principal factor in induced calculous formation in the bladders, males having a much greater tendency to form stone than females. Calculi must be rare under normal conditions and the presence or type of associated infection did not account for the difference. This tendency predominated over all the other factors studied[long dash]including hyaluronidase 150 TRU subcutaneously, brief etherization, and certain forms of stress (all applied 5 days each week for 2 months). Surprisingly, etherization appeared to enhance greatly the formation of stone. The fact that the experiments were designed to demonstrate the usefulness of hyaluronidase against calculous formation but failed to do so may, in itself, be significant.