Abstract
OBJECTIVE: • To investigate whether sustained long-term separate treatments of diabetic inducible nitric oxide synthase knockout (iNOSKo) mice with allopurinol, an antioxidant inhibiting xanthine oxidoreductase, decorin, a transforming growth factor-β1 (TGFβ1) -binding antagonist, and molsidomine, a long-life nitric oxide donor, prevent the processes of diabetes-induced cavernosal fibrosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: • Eight week old male iNOS knock out (iNOSKo) mice were made diabetic by injecting 150 mg/kg B.W Streptozotocin (1P) with were either left untreated or treated with the oral antioxidant allopurinol (40 mg/kg/day), or decoin (50 mg, 1P, twice), as an anti-TGFβ1 agent (n = 8/group). • Glycemia and oxidative stress markers were determined in blood and urine. • Paraffin-embedded tissue sections from the penile shaft were subjected to Masson trichrome staining for the smooth muscle (smc)/collagen ratio, and imunostaining for smc content, profibrotic factors, oxidative stress, cell replication and cell death markers followed by quantitative image analysis. RESULTS: • Eight-week treatment with either allopurinol or decorin counteracted the decrease in smooth muscle cells and the increase in apoptosis and local oxidative stress within the corpora tissue. • Decorin but not allopurinol increased the smooth muscle cell/collagen ratio, whereas allopurinol but not decorin inhibited systemic oxidative stress. • Molsidomine was effective in reducing both local and systemic oxidative stress, but did not prevent corporal fibrosis. CONCLUSION: • Both allopurinol and decorin appear as promising approaches either as a single or a combined pharmacological modality for protecting the diabetic corpora from undergoing apoptosis and fibrosis although their functional effects still need to be defined.