Abstract
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common pathology among aging men. Despite the broad pharmacological interventions, the available remedies to treat BPH are yet not devoid of side effects. Herbal compounds are suggested to be an alternative option for the BPH treatment. In our study, we evaluated the effect of kudzu isoflavones and astaxanthin on the BPH animal model. The animals were randomly divided into five groups: control; testosterone-induced BPH group; and three BPH-induced groups, which received intragastrically for 28 days finasteride (5 mg/kg) as a positive control, isoflavones (200 mg/kg), and astaxanthin (25 mg/kg). BPH was induced by castration of animals and subsequent subcutaneous injections of prolonged testosterone (25 mg/kg). Prostate index and histology, biochemical parameters, and antioxidant activity were evaluated. A significant decrease in prostate weight, immunohistochemical markers, and normalization of prostate Ca/Mg ratio was found in all treatment groups. Astaxanthin treatment also resulted in decreased epithelial proliferation and normalized superoxide dismutase activity. In conclusion, both isoflavones and astaxanthin inhibited BPH development at a level comparable to finasteride in terms of prostate weight, prostatic epithelium proliferation, and prostate tissue cumulative histology score. These results suggest that isoflavones and especially astaxanthin could serve as a potential alternative therapy to treat BHP.
Highlights
Surgical castration followed by the administration of testosterone increased prostate weight by about 2.8 times compared with intact animals (180 ± 18 vs. 508 ± 34 mg/100 g body weight p < 0.001, Table 1)
Finasteride at a dose of 5 mg/kg produced a significant inhibitory effect on the development of Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) which was evident in the decrease of prostate weight, epithelial proliferation, and the increase in blood serum testosterone and decreased oxidative stress marked as superoxide dismutase (SOD) relative activity
Only astaxanthin yielded a significant effect on epithelial area and testosterone level in blood compared to finasteride
Summary
BPH is associated with worse quality of life due to various lower urinary tract symptoms and there is data pointing at the possibility of increased risk of prostate cancer [2,3]. This disease has high personal and healthcare costs, both direct medical and indirect losses in daily functioning [4]. The molecular biological mechanisms influencing the etiology of BPH have not been yet elucidated, prostate development and growth are largely dependent on testosterone and 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the more active form of testosterone. Alpha-blockers and synthetic inhibitors of 5α-reductase, finasteride, and dutasteride, are registered for BPH management in clinical practice [10,11,12], but these drugs have a number of known adverse effects
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