Abstract
To investigate the therapeutic effect of different doses of low energy shock wave therapy (LESWT) on the erectile dysfunction (ED) in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. SD rats (n = 75) were randomly divided into 5 groups (normal control, diabetic control, 3 different dose LESWT treated diabetic groups). Diabetic rats were induced by intra-peritoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg) and rats with fasting blood glucose ≥ 300 mg/dL were selected as diabetic models. Twelve weeks later, different doses of LESWT (100, 200 and 300 shocks each time) treatment on penises were used to treat ED (7.33 MPa, 2 shocks/s) three times a week for two weeks. The erectile function was evaluated by intracavernous pressure (ICP) after 1 week washout period. Then the penises were harvested for histological study. The results showed LESWT could significantly improve the erectile function of diabetic rats, increase smooth muscle and endothelial contents, up-regulate the expression of α-SMA, vWF, nNOS and VEGF, and down- regulate the expression of RAGE in corpus cavernosum. The therapeutic effect might relate to treatment dose positively, and the maximal therapeutic effect was noted in the LESWT300 group. Consequently, 300 shocks each time might be the ideal LESWT dose for diabetic ED treatment.
Highlights
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a health issue, which seriously impacts the quality of life (QOL) of men and their spouses or partners
The erectile function was assessed by Max intracavernous pressure (ICP) and ICP/Mean arterial pressure (MAP)
The results showed that both Max ICP and ICP/MAP revealed a significant decrease in diabetes mellitus (DM)
Summary
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a health issue, which seriously impacts the quality of life (QOL) of men and their spouses or partners. Research on gene therapy and stem cell therapy on ED showed the potential effects on regulation corpus cavernosal pathological changes; these therapies still need a long way to go until clinical application is possible [9,10]. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy was applied in the medical field in the 1980s, and was first used for successfully treating urinary stones. Low energy shock wave therapy (LESWT) was applied in medical care more and more widely. LESWT has been applied in the treatment of myocardial ischemial [18], Peyronie disease [19], diabetic foot, promoting incision healing [20], weight loss [21] and ED [22]. In order to investigate the ideal dose and the mechanism of LESWT on the treatment of ED, the therapeutic effect of different doses of LESWT on STZ induced diabetic ED rats was evaluated
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