Extract

Objective

Functional evaluation of corpus cavernosum from patients with ED after radical prostatectomy (ED-RP) revealed a loss of neurogenic relaxation and an enhancement of neurogenic contraction while endothelium-dependent and endothelium-independent relaxations seem to be preserved. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of ED-RP on the amount of adrenergic and nitrergic nerve terminals, as well as the expression of endothelial NOS (eNOS) in human corpus cavernosum (HCC).

Methods

HCC were obtained from organ donors (NoED, n=6) and from patients with vascular ED (ED-VASC, n=7) or ED-RP (n=8) at the moment of penile prosthesis implantation. HCC were frozen, included in OCT blocks and cut in cryostat. Expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, adrenergic fibers), neuronal NOS (nNOS, nitrergic fibers), eNOS (endothelium) and α1A-adrenergic receptor (α1A-AR) was detected by immunohistofluorescence and quantified by using morphometric software.

Results

With respect to NoED, no significant alterations in the expression of TH or α1A-AR were observed in HCC from ED-VASC or ED-RP. In contrast, a significant reduction in nNOS expression was detected in HCC from ED-RP (59.3±4.1%, p < 0.01), while ED-VASC showed a trend to reduction but without reaching statistical significance (78.9±8.2%). There were no significant differences in the expression of eNOS among the three groups of subjects (93.0±1.9% and 91.1±5.3% for ED-VASC and ED-RP, respectively).

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