A Study On The Effect And The Mechanism Of Icariin For The Treatment Of Erectile Dysfunction

Background: Erectile dysfunction(ED)is a disease in which the patient is unable to carry out satisfying sexual intercourse due to a recurrent or continuous incapacity to achieve full or sustainable erection of the penis,which seriously sabotages the mental health,the partnership and the fertility of male patients worldwide.Erectile function is closely related to vascular function.Impaired vascular function can lead to the development of ED,and the development of ED can also lead to damage to the vessels in the penile corpus cavernosum.In clinical practice,icariin,a traditional Chinese medicines has achieved good results,at the same time icariin plays a role in promoting neovascularization of peripheral blood vessels in rats.The sphingosine-1-phosphate(S-1-P)/sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor subtype 1(S1P1)pathway plays an important role in systemic vascular neogenesis and homeostasis maintenance.Therefore,the hypothesis was raised as to whether icariin could promote erectile function by enhancing the S-1-P/S1P1 pathway by promoting the content of mature vessels in penile corpus carvernosum.Meanwhile,the penile corpus cavernosum was exposed to an ischemic and hypoxic external environment,thus the degree of tissue fibrosis increased,which can be reduced by icariin in many other organs.Therefore,it is speculated whether icariin can reduce the degree of fibrosis in the penile corpus cavernosum.Objective: To investigate the effect of icarrin on improving erectile function in rats with arterial ED;to explore whether the icariin can promote the growth of mature vascular in penile corpus cavernosum of rats with arterial ED;and to explore whether the growth of vessels in penile corpus carvernosum is mediated through the S-1-P/S1P1pathway;to investigate whether icariin can reduce the fibrosis of penile corpus cavernosum of rats.Method: An arterial ED rat model was obtained by bilateral internal iliac artery ligation in healthy male SD rats.The 60 healthy SD rats were randomly divided into 6groups:sham-operated group,model group,tadalafil group,low-dose group,medium-dose group and high-dose group.After 30 days,the cavernous nerves of the rats were stimulated and the maximum intracavernous pressure(ICPmax)was measured to assess the erectile function of the rats.After measurement,specimens were prepared from the penile corpus cavernousum.The concentrations of vascular smooth muscle actin subtype α(α-SMA)which reflected the content of mature vessels in the tissue,S-1-P and S1P1 in the rat penile corpus cavernosum were measured by ELISA,and the area of fibrosis in the rat penile corpus cavernosum was assessed using Masson staining method.Conclusion: Medium dose and high dose of icariin significantly improved the erectile dysfunctin of rats with arterial ED.High doses of icariin significantly increased the concentrations of α-SMA and S-1-P in the penile corpus cavernousum of rats with arterial ED.Statistical analysis showed that icariin could promote erectile function by promoting S-1-P/S1P1 pathways for vascular neogenesis.The area of penile fibrous tissue in the icariin group was smaller than that in the model group,but the results were not statistically significant.