1. Academic Validation
  2. Simvastatin alleviated diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction in rats by enhancing AMPK pathway-induced autophagy

Simvastatin alleviated diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction in rats by enhancing AMPK pathway-induced autophagy

  • Andrology. 2020 May;8(3):780-792. doi: 10.1111/andr.12758.
Fan Ding 1 Changyu Shan 2 Hongwei Li 2 Yuping Zhang 2 Chunling Guo 2 Zhansong Zhou 1 Ji Zheng 1 Wenhao Shen 1 Qiang Dai 1 Qin Ouyang 2 Xiaojun Wu 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Urinary Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
  • 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction is a common diabetic complication, and new therapeutics and the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction need to be investigated.

Objectives: The aim was to investigate the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction and the pharmacological mechanism of simvastatin treatment in diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction model rats.

Materials and methods: A total of 86 male Sprague Dawley rats aged 8 weeks old were used in this study. The rats were divided into three groups: control (normal), diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction (streptozotocin-injected), and diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction + simvastatin (sim). Each group was subdivided into two subgroups for in vitro and in vivo analyses. A bioinformatics method was used to detect differences in gene expression in the corpus cavernosum between normal and diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction rats. Erectile function was measured by a cavernous nerve electrostimulation test. Corpus cavernosum fibrosis was assessed by Masson staining and Western blotting. Immunofluorescence and Western blotting were performed to explore the differential expression of autophagy-related genes and the AMPK-SKP2-CARM1 pathway genes in rat cavernous smooth muscle cells and the corpus cavernosum. The autophagosomes of the corpus cavernosum tissue were observed by transmission electron microscopy.

Results: Autophagy-related genes and pathways (the AMPK and FOXO pathway) were identified by bioinformatics analysis and confirmed at the protein level. Simvastatin, an AMPK agonist, was used to treat diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction rats for 8 weeks, demonstrating that erectile function was improved for 80.5% (P < .05) of rats. Corpus cavernosum fibrosis was alleviated (P < .05), and Autophagy was further enhanced (P < .05); these results might be partially caused by AMPK-SKP2-CARM1 pathway activation (P < .05).

Discussion and conclusion: Simvastatin could enhance protective Autophagy by activating the AMPK-SKP2-CARM1 pathway to improve erectile function in diabetes mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction rats.

Keywords

adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase; autophagy; diabetic mellitus-induced erectile dysfunction; simvastatin.

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