Journal of Andrology
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Published-Ahead-of-Print November 1, 2006, DOI:10.2164/jandrol.106.000794

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Differential expression of neurotrophins in penises of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Yun Chen , Rong Yang , Leshen Yao , Zeyu Sun , Run Wang , and Yutian Dai *

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ytdai{at}hotmail.com.

To explore the mechanism of diabetic erectile dysfunction, we studied the distribution of neurotrophins in the penises of diabetic rats, including nerve growth factor (NGF), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and neurotrophin-4 (NT-4). Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with 65 mg/kg streptozotocin to induce diabetes mellitus (DM). The control rats were raised as aged-matched control. Eight weeks later, the intercavernous pressure (ICP) of the rats was measured after electrostimulation and before sacrifice. Each peeled penis was divided into two parts, one for immunohistochemistry and the other for Western blot analysis. The ICP of the DM group rats was significantly decreased as compared to the vehicle control rats. There were significantly more NGF positive neurons in the penises of the diabetic rats than those of the control rats; while contradictory results were observed in BDNF positive neurons. In the Western blot analysis, the proteins of NGF, NT-3 and NT-4 were all increased while that of BDNF was decreased in diabetic rats. This is the first study revealing the expression of NT-4 protein in cavernous tissue. The abnormal level of these four neurotrophins in cavernous tissue may be one of the factors of the pathogenesis of diabetic ED. The increase of neurotrophins may reflect the degree of cavernous tissue denervation, and represent a compensatory mechanism. The lesion of the retrograde axonal transport of the nerves caused by hyperglycemia may be related to this phenomenon.


Key words: Erectile Dysfunction • diabetes mellitus • neurotrophin






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