Apoptosis in rat erectile tissue induced by castration.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of androgen on the structure of corpus cavernosum.


METHODS
Thirty mature rats were randomized into 3 groups, i.e., simple castration, castration with testosterone (T) supplementation and sham-operated controls. One week after operation, the animals were sacrificed and corpora cavenosa harvested. Apoptosis was detected with the in situ end labeling (ISEL) techniques and DNA fragment analysis.


RESULTS
The apoptotic rate was 4.19% in the simple castrated rats, 0. 2% in castrated rats supplemented with T and 0.14% in the controls. Significant difference was found between the simple castrates and other two groups (P < 0.01). When comparing the T-supplementation group with the controls, there was no statistical difference (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Castration induced apoptosis in rat corpus cavernosum, that could be prevented by T supplementation. It suggests that androgen plays an important role in maintaining the structure of corpus cavernosum.
Research Center of Urology and Andrology, Hubei Medical University, Wuhan, China.
X H
XH
Zhang
L Q
LQ
Hu
X M
XM
Zheng
S W
SW
Li
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D008297:Male; D009919:Orchiectomy; D010413:Penis / Q000166:cytology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley