RNA-Seq Time-Course of Rat Bladder Transcriptomes Following Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) evokes profound dysfunction in hollow organs such as the urinary bladder and gut. Current treatments are limited by a lack of molecular data to inform novel therapeutic avenues. Previously, we showed systemic treatment with the neuroprotective agent inosine improved bladder function following SCI in rats. This RNA-seq dataset captures global transcriptomic changes in the rat bladder at multiple time points following spinal cord injury (SCI). Full-thickness bladder tissues were collected from male Sprague Dawley rats at 2, 8, and 16 weeks post-complete T8 spinal cord transection, alongside non-injured controls. RNA-seq was performed on bladder tissues harvested from male Sprague Dawley rats (6–7 weeks old) subjected to complete T8 spinal cord transection, with matched non-injured controls. At 2, 8, and 16 weeks post-injury, full-thickness bladders were isolated, snap-frozen, and processed for RNA extraction using TRIzol and miRNeasy columns. RNA quality was assessed using NanoDrop, Qubit, and Bioanalyzer systems. Libraries were prepared using the KAPA Total RNA-Seq RiboErase Kit (ribodepletion protocol), and paired-end 51 bp reads were generated using an Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform. Raw read data were converted from BCL to FASTQ using Bcl2fastq. A total of 18 samples were sequenced (n=3 per group), enabling differential gene expression and pathway enrichment analyses across the SCI time course.