Urogynaecology
Lead Researcher:
Associate Professor Kate Moore
Most significant advances or findings in past 10yrs:
Urinary incontinence in women is a common and distressing problem that affects around 15% of women over the age of 40. The cause of this distressing problem remains unknown in the majority of cases. Prof Kate Moore's group have identified abnormalities/deficiencies in a specific (purinergic) nerve receptor in the muscular wall of the bladder in patients affected by this disease. They have also found changes in different neuromuscular (muscarinic) receptors in the lining (urothelium) of the bladder. Both of these important discoveries may lead to development of new drug treatments for this condition.
At the other end of the age spectrum, we have been studying autoimmune blistering disorders, where the body reacts against its own skin to cause blistering in bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus, trying to develop better disease severity measurements for collaborative international trials on therapy.
Most important aspects of current work
Our current work involves an exciting new finding that the epithelial living cells are actively involved in sending messages [ATP] to the rest of the bladder, we are investigating whether these messages differ between patients with urge incontinence and others. We are the first research group in the world to have used bladder-lining cells to discover this information.
Recent publications
Moore KH, Ray F, Barden JA. Loss of purinergic P2X3 and P2X5 receptor innervation in human detrusor from adults with urge incontinence. J Neuroscience. 2001; 21:RC166:1-6.
Mansfield K, Liu L, Moore KH, Vaux KJ, Millard RJ, Burcher E. Molecular characterization of M2 and M3 muscarinic receptor expression in bladder from women with refractory idiopathic detrusor overactivity. British Journal of Urology International. 2007; 99:1433-1438.
