Traumatic arteriogenic erectile dysfunction: a rat model.

We developed a rat model of traumatic arteriogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) for the study of vasculogenic ED. Bilateral ligation of the internal iliac artery was performed on 30 three-month old male Sprague-Dawley rats as an experimental group. The control group consisted of 12 rats which underwent dissection of the internal iliac artery without ligation. Before their euthanization at 3 days, 7 days, and 1 month (10 rats in the experimental group and four rats in the control group at each time point), erectile function was assessed by electrostimulation of the cavernous nerves. Penile tissues were collected for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) diaphorase staining, trichrome staining, electron microscopy and RT-PCR for transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta1), insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and fibroblast growth factors (FGF) mRNA expression. Electrostimulation of the cavernous nerves revealed a highly significant declining of the intracavernous pressure after 3 and 7 days. No significant recovery of erectile function was noted at 1 month. Histology showed degeneration of the dorsal nerve fibers in all experimental rats. There was little decrease in the bulk of intracavernous smooth muscle in the experimental rats euthanazed 7 and 30 days. NADPH diaphorase staining revealed a significant decrease in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) containing nerve fibers in the dorsal and intracavernosal nerves in all rats in the experimental group. Electron microscopy showed a variety of changes such as collapse of sinusoids, increased cell debris, fibroblast and myofibroblast loss, intracellular deposition of fat and collagen and fatty degeneration. RT-PCR revealed up-regulation of TGF-beta1 after 3 days but not after 7 days or 1 month. There is no significant difference in IGF-I or FGF expression between the experimental and control group. Bilateral ligation of internal iliac arteries produces a reliable animal model for traumatic arteriogenic ED. Further studies are needed to investigate the molecular mechanism of ED in this model.

Assessment of renal viability by phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

To assess the applicability of phosphorus-31 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS) in the analysis of renal transplant viability and preservation techniques with respect to pre-transplant ischemia, we studied two rat groups. Twenty-five rat kidneys were subjected to various time increments of warm ischemia (Group A), and 31P-MRS was performed on each kidney at time intervals of up to 72 hours during simple hypothermic storage. We correlated findings of 31P-MRS with simultaneous findings of electron microscopic (EM) ultrastructural viability parameters (in Group A) and subsequent survival and renal function in 30 rats (Group B) subjected to similar amounts of variable ischemia. Intracellular phosphorus metabolite levels were nondestructively monitored by 31P-MRS via spectral peaks of NAD, sugar monophosphates (SP), and inorganic phosphate (Pi). We concluded: SP/Pi and NAD/Pi ratios decay in a time-dependent manner for both warm and cold ischemia, although this process is much slower during cold storage; EM viability parameters correlate with the development of acute tubular necrosis (irreversible damage) versus nonviability (gross cell death) on a qualitative basis only; and 31P-MRS enables a quantitative assessment of renal viability and ischemic renal damage and can predict the degree of acute tubular necrosis and post-ischemic renal function. 31P-MRS is potentially a noninvasive, nondestructive method of assessing viability during simple hypothermic storage of the rat kidney. Preliminary evidence shows that this MRS method can be applied to human kidney viability studies for clinical renal transplantation and urologic research concerning renal preservation.