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| Author(s): |
Fábio Henrique da Silva
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Campinas, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Ciências Médicas |
| Defense date: | 2014-02-26 |
| Examining board members: |
Edson Antunes;
Sisi Marcondes;
Fernando Silva Carneiro;
Carlos Renato Tirapelli;
Juliana Signori Baracat Zeferino
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| Advisor: | Edson Antunes |
| Abstract | |
The prevalence of erectile dysfunction increases progressively with age, being 29% in middle-aged men (40- to 49-year-old men). The increased oxidative stress has been implicated as a major cause of ED-associated vascular complications as and may contribute to ED in middle age. One major consequence of the increased oxidative stress is the inactivation of nitric oxide (NO) by high concentrations of superoxide anion (O2-). The NO can react with O2-, producing peroxynitrite (ONOO-), thus reducing the NO bioavailability and the corpus cavernosum relaxation. Thus, we hypothesized that increases in reactive-oxygen species (ROS) production in corpus cavernosum of middle-aged rats (CCMR) contributes to ED in this age group. Therefore, we used young (3.5-month) and middle-aged (10-month) rats. We first studied the role of stress oxidative on the relaxant mechanisms of CCMR. The ICP was significantly reduced in middle-aged rats. The relaxations induced by acetylcholine (ACh; 10 nM ¿ 10 mM), sodium nitroprusside (SNP; 10 nM ¿ 10 mM), sildenafil (1 nM ¿ 10 µM), BAY 41-2272 (1 nM ¿ 10 µM) and electrical field-stimulation (EFS; 8 ¿ 32 Hz) were significantly decreased in CCMR, all of which prevented by pre-incubation with apocynin (100 µM) or superoxide dismutase (SOD; 75 U/ml). The treatment chronic with apocynin (85 mg/rat/day, 4 weeks) also prevented the reduction of relaxations induced by ACh, SNP and EFS in CCMR, without changing the response in the young rats. Relaxation induced by 8-Br-GMPc (10 nM ¿ 300 µM) remained unchanged. Basal levels of cGMP and stimulated with SNP or BAY 41-2272 were significantly lower in CCMR in comparison with young group, which were restored by apocynin or SOD. Protein expression of nNOS, phosphorylated eNOS (p-eNOS) (Ser-1177) and sGC (?1 and ?1 subunits) was reduced in CCMR, but no changes were observed in the protein expression for total eNOS and p-eNOS (Thr-495). The mRNA expression for the gp91phox was higher in CCMR. The mRNA expression for the SOD-1 was similar between young and middle-aged groups. Basal levels of ROS were 64% higher in the middle-aged in comparison with young group. In a second part, we studied the role of stress oxidative on the contractile mechanisms of CCMR. Contractile responses elicited by EFS (4-32 Hz) were significantly greater in CCMR, which were accompanied by a 2.0-fold higher protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase. The contractile responses induced by phenylephrine were also greater in middle-aged group. The treatment chronic with apocynin (85 mg/rat/day, 4 weeks) restored the increase of contraction induced by phenylephrine and EFS, as well as the protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and sGC (?1 and ?1 subunits) in CCMR. In conclusion, our data shows that ED seen in middle-aged rats is associated with decreased NO bioavailability due to upregulation of mRNA expression for gp91phox and downregulation of nNOS e p-eNOS (Ser-1177). The ED in middle aged is also associated with increased protein expression of tyrosine hydroxylase and contractile responses. Downregulation of GCs (?1 and ?1 subunits) in cavernosal also appears to participate to ED in middle-aged rats. The treatment chronic with apocynin reverted the deleterious effects of ROS in middle-aged rats, thus ameliorating the erectile function. Therefore, decrease of oxidative stress in erectile tissue by antioxidant therapies may be a good pharmacological approach to treat ED at early stages of the male impotence (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 11/11309-7 - Erectile dysfunction in middle-aged rats: functional, biochemical and molecular studies. |
| Grantee: | Fábio Henrique da Silva |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |